devastate

Meaning

Verb

  • To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.
  • To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
  • To break beyond recovery or repair so that the only options are abandonment or the clearing away of useless remains (if any) and starting over.
  • To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay

Related

Similar words

Origin

  • From Latin dēvastātus, perfect passive participle of dēvastō, from dē- (augmentative prefix) + vastō.

Modern English dictionary

Explore and search massive catalog of over 900,000 word meanings.

Word of the Day

Get a curated memorable word every day.

Challenge yourself

Level up your vocabulary by setting personal goals.

And much more

Try out Vedaist now.