Wiktionary

devastate

English

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Etymology

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From Latin dēvastātus, perfect passive participle of dēvastō, from dē- (augmentative prefix) vastō (“I destroy, I lay waste to”).

Pronunciation

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Verb

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devastate (third-person singular simple present devastates, present participle devastating, simple past and past participle devastated)

  1. 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.
    • 2022 August 24, Bruce Healey, “Wartime tunnel crash: a miraculous escape”, in RAIL, number 964, page 53:
      Halifax in Canada was devastated by a ship exploding in 1917. SS Mont Blanc, a French vessel loaded with 2.9 kilotons of explosives, collided with the Imo.
  2. To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
  3. 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.
  4. To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Ido

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Verb

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devastate

  1. adverbial present passive participle of devastar

Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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devastate

  1. inflection of devastare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

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Participle

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devastate f pl

  1. feminine plural of devastato

Anagrams

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Latin

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Verb

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dēvāstāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēvāstō

Spanish

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Verb

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devastate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of devastar combined with te
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