to deprive or strip of flowers: The deer had deflowered an entire section of the garden.
Origin: 1350–1400; Middle English deflouren < Old French desflorer < Latin dēflōrāre, equivalent to dē-de- + flōr-, stem of flōsflower + -āre infinitive suffix
late 14c., from O.Fr. desflorer (13c.), from L. deflorare from flos "flower" (see flora). Notion is "to strip of flowers," hence "to ravish," which is the original sense in Eng.