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ravage - 5 dictionary results

rav⋅age

  [rav-ij] verb, -aged, -ag⋅ing, noun
Use ravage in a Sentence
–verb (used with object)
1. to work havoc upon; damage or mar by ravages: a face ravaged by grief.
–verb (used without object)
2. to work havoc; do ruinous damage.
–noun
3. havoc; ruinous damage: the ravages of war.
4. devastating or destructive action.
Origin:
1605–15; < F, MF, equiv. to rav(ir) to ravish + -age -age

Related forms:
rav⋅age⋅ment, noun
rav⋅ag⋅er, noun

Synonyms:
1. ruin, despoil, plunder, pillage, sack. Ravage, devastate, lay waste all refer, in their literal application, to the wholesale destruction of a countryside by an invading army (or something comparable). Lay waste has remained the closest to the original meaning of destruction of land: The invading army laid waste the towns along the coast. But ravage and devastate are used in reference to other types of violent destruction and may also have a purely figurative application. Ravage is often used of the results of epidemics: The Black Plague ravaged 14th-century Europe; and even of the effect of disease or suffering on the human countenance: a face ravaged by despair. Devastate, in addition to its concrete meaning (vast areas devastated by bombs), may be used figuratively: a devastating remark. 4. ruin, waste, desolation.

Antonyms:
1. build, repair. 4. creation.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To ravage
rav·age   (rāv'ĭj)   
v.   rav·aged, rav·ag·ing, rav·ages

v.   tr.
  1. To bring heavy destruction on; devastate: A tornado ravaged the town.
  2. To pillage; sack: Enemy soldiers ravaged the village.
v.   intr.
To wreak destruction.
n.  
  1. The act or practice of pillaging, destroying, or devastating.
  2. Grievous damage; havoc: the ravages of disease.

[French ravager, from Old French, to uproot, from ravir, to ravish; see ravish.]
rav'ag·er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Ravage

Rav"age\ (?; 48), n. [F., fr. (assumed) L. rapagium, rapaticum, fr. rapere to carry off by force, to ravish. See Rapacious, Ravish.] 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.

Syn: Despoilment; devastation; desolation; pillage; plunder; spoil; waste; ruin.

Ravage

Rav"age\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ravaged; p. pr. & vb. n. Ravaging.] [F. ravager. See Ravage, n.] To lay waste by force; to desolate by violence; to commit havoc or devastation upon; to spoil; to plunder; to consume.

Already C[ae]sar Has ravaged more than half the globe. --Addison.

His lands were daily ravaged, his cattle driven away. --Macaulay.

Syn: To despoil; pillage; plunger; sack; spoil; devastate; desolate; destroy; waste; ruin.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : ravage
Spanish: devastar,
German: verwüsten,
Japanese: 破壊する
More Translations »

ravage 
1611, from Fr. ravager "lay waste, devastate," from O.Fr. ravage "destruction," especially by flood, 14c., from ravir "to take away hastily" (see ravish).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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