devastate
/ˈdɛv.ə.steɪt/ verb B1- 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
He/she/it devastates · Past devastated · Past participle devastated · -ing form devastating
Verb forms
- Base form
- devastate
- He/she/it
- devastates
- Past
- devastated
- Past participle
- devastated
- -ing form
- devastating
From the library
Born in the neighborhood of Arles, she had shared in the beauty for which its women are proverbial; but that beauty had gradually withered beneath the devastating influence of the slow fever so prevalent among dwellers by the ponds of Aiguemortes and the marshes of Camargue.
Meanwhile, the devastating conditions back on the plains required comprehensive environmental interventions to prevent further destruction of the American heartland.
Madame Forestier grabbed Mathilde's hands, her eyes wide with a mixture of immense sorrow and complete, devastating astonishment.
More importantly, the systematic removal of contaminated water from the immediate vicinity of the populace drastically reduced the widespread transmission of devastating waterborne diseases.
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