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# devastate

«devastate» in Mova's school dictionary: **To destroy or badly damage a place, so little is left** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (devastate, devastates, devastated, devastating); adjective forms: devastated, devastating

### meaning for a pupil

1) To destroy or badly damage a place, so little is left. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#m1)

2) To make someone feel terribly shocked and sad. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#m2)

3) (informal) devastating can also mean extremely strong or impressive, as in «a devastating goal». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In geography and history it describes storms, floods, fires and wars that ruin towns and farms; in stories it shows a character's deep grief; phrases: «devastated by the news», «a devastating fire», «left devastated».

### examples

- The hurricane devastated the little island town. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#x1)
- Bushfires devastated huge areas of forest in Australia. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#x2)
- Mia was devastated when her old dog died. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#x3)
- The flood devastated the farmers' crops. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#x4)
- The news of the factory closing devastated the whole village. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#x5)
- The team was devastated after losing in the last minute. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#x6)
- She hit a devastating shot into the top corner. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#x7)
- The war devastated the city, but people rebuilt it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#x8)
- He first sent him to kill the Chimaera, a monster which was at this time devastating the country. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/#x9)

### note

Regular verb. «Devastated» (feeling) and «devastating» (causing it): I was devastated; the news was devastating. Noun: devastation (uncountable). Stronger than «upset» or «damaged»; do not use it for small things unless joking.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «devastate» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/devastate/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.