devastate

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   overwhelm or overpower

   I was devastated when my friend died.

2. 2
   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.

   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.

3. 3
   verb

   cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly

4. 4
   verb

   To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.

5. 5
   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.

6. 6
   verb

   To greatly demoralize, to cause to suffer intense grief or dismay

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin dēvastātus, perfect passive participle of dēvastō (“to lay waste, devastate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)); from dē- (augmentative prefix) + vastō (“to destroy, lay waste”). See vast. First attested in 1638.