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To devastate. [Obs.] Bolingbroke.

To lay waste; to ravage; to desolate. Whole countries . . . were devastated. Macaulay.

The act of devastating, or the state of being devastated; a laying waste. Even now the devastation is begun, And half the business of destruction done. Goldsmith.

One who, or that which, devastates. Emerson.

Waste or misapplication of the assets of a deceased person by an executor or an administrator. Bouvier.

destroying; a tearing down; a bringing to naught; subversion; demolition; ruin; slaying; devastation. The Jews smote all their enemies with the stroke of the sword, and slaughter, and destruction. Esth. ix. 5. 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. Shak. Destruction of venera…

Causing destruction; tending to bring about ruin, death, or devastation; ruinous; fatal; productive of serious evil; mischievous; pernicious; -- often with of or to; as, intemperance is destructive of health; evil examples are destructive to the morals of youth. Time's destructive power. Wordsworth. Destructive distill…

Devastated; laid waste. [Obs.]

Protestants under Louis XIV., by an armed force, usually of dragoons; hence, a rapid and devastating incursion; dragoonade. He learnt it as he watched the dragonnades, the tortures, the massacres of the Netherlands. C. Kingsley.

Devastation; waste. [Obs.] Milton.

Wide and general destruction; devastation; waste. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church. Acts viii. 3. Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make Among your works! Addison.

Swarming and devastating like locusts. [R.] Tennyson.

as the plague; hence, any contagious or infectious epidemic disease that is virulent and devastating. The pestilence That walketh in darkness. Ps. xci. 6.

Desolation by violence; violent ruin or destruction; devastation; havoc; waste; as, the ravage of a lion; the ravages of fire or tempest; the ravages of an army, or of time. Would one think 't were possible for love To make such ravage in a noble soul Addison.

the pillage or plunder, as of a town or city; the storm and plunder of a town; devastation; ravage. The town was stormed, and delivered up to sack, -- by which phrase is to be understood the perpetration of all those outrages which the ruthless code of war allowed, in that age, on the persons and property of the defens…

A laying waste; waste; depopulation; devastation. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

Desolate; devastated; stripped; bare; hence, dreary; dismal; gloomy; cheerless. The dismal situation waste and wild. Milton. His heart became appalled as he gazed forward into the waste darkness of futurity. Sir W. Scott.