Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To lay waste; destroy.
- transitive verb To overwhelm; confound; stun.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To lay waste; ravage; make desolate.
- Synonyms To harry, waste, strip, pillage, plunder.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To lay waste; to ravage; to desolate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- 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. - verb To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
- verb 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.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb overwhelm or overpower
- verb cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Bubonic plague, a disease which at intervals has swept over the whole world, familiar to all who recall their history as the terrible Black Death of Europe and the plague described by Pepys and Defoe, will never again devastate the more civilized portions of the earth.
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Maroni says he asked the European Union for emergency to intervene because "there is an institutional and political earthquake" underway in Tunisia that could "devastate" Europe.
Italy Seeks to Deploy Police in Tunisia to Stem Tide of Refugees 2011
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Maroni says he asked the European Union for emergency to intervene because "there is an institutional and political earthquake" underway in Tunisia that could "devastate" Europe.
Italy Seeks to Deploy Police in Tunisia to Stem Tide of Refugees 2011
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Maroni says he asked the European Union for emergency to intervene because "there is an institutional and political earthquake" underway in Tunisia that could "devastate" Europe.
Italy Seeks to Deploy Police in Tunisia to Stem Tide of Refugees 2011
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Failure by rich donor countries to provide fresh resources for a fund to help poor countries would "devastate" the fight against global poverty, the president of the World Bank has warned.
World Bank boss pleads with rich nations to dig deep and help poor Larry Elliott 2010
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Maroni says he asked the European Union for emergency to intervene because "there is an institutional and political earthquake" underway in Tunisia that could "devastate" Europe.
Italy Seeks to Deploy Police in Tunisia to Stem Tide of Refugees 2011
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World Bank president Robert Zoellick warns failure to top up a fund for poor countries would 'devastate' fight against poverty
World Bank boss pleads with rich nations to dig deep and help poor Larry Elliott 2010
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The BNA reported that, "U.S. labor unions balked at backing ITUC's position, given fears that deep cuts would 'devastate' heavy manufacturing in the United States as well as the coal and steel industries."
Brendan Smith: Unions Call for Science-Based Reductions in Greenhouse Gases 2010
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A proposal to build Britain's only commercial gold mine in Loch Lomond national park has been refused after councillors decided it would "devastate" the park's outstanding scenery.
Scottish gold mine turned down at Loch Lochmond Severin Carrell Scotland correspondent 2010
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Really, if the fallout from the last state dinner really did "devastate" the Salahis, as they claimed, wouldn't they mark last night, of all nights, on the calendar to stay home and rent a movie?
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