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devastating

[dev-uh-stey-ting]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

tending or threatening to devastate: a devastating fire.

satirical, ironic, or caustic in an effective way: a devastating portrayal of society.

Origin:
1625–35; devastate + -ing²

Related forms

dev·as·tat·ing·ly, adverb

un·dev·as·tat·ing, adjective

un·dev·as·tat·ing·ly, adverb

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Devastating is always a great word to know.

So is callithumpian. Does it mean:

a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.

a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.

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Example Sentences

Japan's economy was spared a more devastating blow because the earthquake hit far from its industrial heartland.

His decision has been devastating to our department.

Japan's earthquake has a devastating effect on the stockmarket too.

EXPAND

Japan's economy was spared a more devastating blow because the earthquake hit far from its industrial heartland.

His decision has been devastating to our department.

Japan's earthquake has a devastating effect on the stockmarket too.

When sea levels rise rapidly, as they have been doing, even a small increase can have devastating effects on coastal habitats.

More than nine months after the country's devastating earthquake, a cholera epidemic has sickened thousands.

All told, fishing, poaching and development can be devastating.

Pesticides can't stop the world's strongest, and arguably strangest looking, creature from devastating crops.

Concepcion is a devastating blow to consumer rights.

After the devastating storm, athletics officials cut several teams and struggled to rebuild severely damaged facilities.

For, small though the chance of a large asteroid hitting home might be, the consequences would be devastating.

In recent years, warmer temperatures have been changing the structure of the snow-with devastating effects for the lemmings.

Where toxic pollution and human habitation collide with devastating effects.

Zéphirin is known for his powerful imagination and devastating social commentary.

Ground-based sensors would detect that a devastating blow had been struck and a counterattack would be launched.

Schizophrenia has a devastating effect on all aspects of human thought, emotion, and expression.

If it happens for the first time when you're older, it can be devastating.

If its calculations are wrong, the result can be devastating.

But martial artists are perhaps best known for being able to deliver devastating kicks.

Some of the quiet types could presage devastating tsunamis or larger, ground-shaking shocks.

Meanwhile, fungicide-resistant new strains of the old disease are devastating potato fields all over the world.

Some characters even fly around the court, making for a difficult learning curve but devastating speed.

The danger for savers is not simply of disappointing returns, but of devastating blows to their wealth.

Devastating swarms of crop-killing locusts can be triggered by the neurotransmitter serotonin, a new study says.

Software errors are probably more common, but hardware errors can be devastating and harder to diagnose.

While experts debate that question, they agree that more devastating tempests are headed our way.

But if the flu mutates into a form that can jump from human to human, the outcome would be devastating.

Census data have corroborated the devastating impact on households.

Watch footage from a twister's devastating path and see how researchers are working with radar to trace tornadoes before they hit.

But when a man-made disaster has the potential of devastating a large area of wilderness, it's the apocalypse.

Seeing the destruction so close to my hometown was devastating.

His goal: to explore the tension between the viruses' devastating beauty and their devastating impact on humanity.

The ancient predator would ambush prey many times its own size and weight and rapidly dispatch the victim with devastating jaws.

Some of the quiet types could presage devastating tsunamis or larger, ground-shaking shock.

Ignoring science in favor of a preferred outlook on the world can have devastating consequences.

Anthrax and smallpox are on everyone's radar as potentially devastating bioweapons.

Even modest shocks, such as a temporary dry spell or a routine infection, can be devastating.

Shonibare suffered a devastating viral illness that left him partially paralyzed.

Knee ligament injuries can strike at any time and be utterly devastating to an athlete's career.

As devastating as this volcanic torrent was for the creatures it buried, it would become a boon for paleontology.

And it was so devastating and at the same time moving.

And recent studies indicate that the new drug treatments can protect stroke victims from potentially devastating brain damage.

The result has been a devastating reduction in state.

Animals as common as goats, deer, rabbits or mice can have a devastating effect on other wildlife.

And seven years of unremitting stress can have devastating consequences on your physical and emotional health.

The survey also contained devastating news for those publishers hoping to co-ordinate attempts to charge.

Here, six men and women speak about how their lives have changed as a result of this devastating illness.

There are contemporary parallels with the king's devastating leadership.

Witness the awesome power of nature through incredible footage of devastating storms from around the world.

The timing is a devastating blow to the city's psyche.

He will likely be isolated and shunned over time, making his devastating ordeal even more devastating.

Overall, it seems that the dam's effects may not be quite as devastating as the protest groups make out.

Scientists expect the potentially devastating events.

When that happens, the consequences can be swift and devastating.

Turned out, believe it or not, to be almost as emotionally devastating for me as for my spouse.

These factors, along with storm-driven waves, can overwhelm miles of shoreline with devastating force.

United has fallen victim to its own efforts to manage what's been a devastating rise in fuel costs.

If women were in charge, the risks they took would have been more moderate instead of devastating to all of.

Large-scale growers can keep it from devastating their harvests only by spraying fungicides from airplanes.

It would also have particularly devastating psychological effects.

For many of us, losing our blog's content could be devastating.

Their best defense: a tiny fly with a devastating attraction to the ants.

With the damage continuing after the initial injury, the impact of a spinal cord injury can be devastating.

Researchers disagree on how devastating a dirty bomb explosion might.

The discovery hints that humans in the region survived the blast's devastating effects.

Ultimately, the looting was not as devastating as some had feared, and many of the country's treasures were recovered.

Clozapine and the new atypical mind-alterning anti-psycholtic drugs have devastating side-effects and they create life-long users.

For gamers who have spent hours building a reputation, red links can be devastating.

Human impacts that might seem small can have devastating effect.

Both the philosophical and scientific implications of his thesis are more devastating than any abuses people could.

The bow-and-arrow was also used to devastating effect.

The state has withstood many devastating hurricanes.

Each side had thousands of nuclear warheads and the ability to deliver a devastating nuclear payload within minutes.

Decimation of these bats could have a devastating effect on tropical ecosystems on three continents.

For thousands of years, people have struggled to survive the devastating power of savage natural calamities.

Huge hurricanes, devastating droughts, ferocious blizzards.

COLLAPSE

Dictionary.com Unabridged

verb (used with object), -tat·ed, -tat·ing.

to lay waste; render desolate: The invaders devastated the city.

to overwhelm.

Origin:
1625–35; < Latin dēvastātus laid waste (past participle of dēvastāre), equivalent to dē- de- + vast(āre) to lay waste (akin to vastus empty) + -ātus -ate¹

Related forms

dev·as·ta·tive, adjective

dev·as·ta·tor, noun

un·dev·as·tat·ed, adjective

Synonyms
1. destroy, sack, despoil. See ravage.

Link To devastating

Collins

World English Dictionary

devastating (ˈdɛvəˌsteɪtɪŋ)

—*adj*
	extremely effective in a destructive way: a devastating war; a devastating report on urban deprivation

devastatingly

—*adv*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

devastate

1630s, probably a back-formation from devastation, but apparently not common until 19c.; earlier verb form devast is attested from 1530s, from Fr. devaster. Related: devastated.

EXPAND

devastating

1630s, from devastate. Trivial use by 1889.

COLLAPSE

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"The War was decided in the first twenty days of fighting, and all that happened afterwards consisted in battles which, however formidable and devastating, were but desperate and vain appeals against the decision of Fate."

-Winston Churchill

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devastating

dev·as·tat·ing

dev·as·tate