Ravage
['rævɪdʒ]
Definition
(noun.) (usually plural) a destructive action; 'the ravages of time'; 'the depredations of age and disease'.
Editor: Lucia--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) 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.
(n.) To lay waste by force; to desolate by violence; to commit havoc or devastation upon; to spoil; to plunder; to consume.
Edited by Ethelred
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Ruin, spoil, waste, devastate, destroy, despoil, sack, ransack, desolate, pillage, plunder, strip, lay waste.
n. Ruin, waste, spoil, pillage, rapine, desolation, destruction, devastation, havoc.
Edited by Greg
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Devastation, desolation, waste, pillage, plunder, sack, ruin, spoil
ANT:Sparing, conserving, preserving
SYN:Spoil, devastate, despoil, destroy, desolate, ransack, waste, ruin, overrun,plunder
ANT:Spare, conserve, preserve, indemnify
Typist: Stanley
Definition
v.t. to lay waste: to destroy: to pillage.—n. devastation: ruin.—n. Rav′ager.
Checked by Claudia
Examples
- In August, the plague had appeared in the country of England, and during September it made its ravages. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- What wonder then, in time of siege, want, extreme heat, and drought, that it should make unaccustomed ravages? Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Attila's ravages in North Italy were checked by an outbreak of fever in 452. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- We talked of the ravages made last year by pestilence in every quarter of the world; and of the dreadful consequences of a second visitation. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Hiding the ravages of care with a sickly mask of mirth, I have not informed you, this evening, that there is no hope of the remittance! Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Her present visit to London tended to augment her state of inquietude, by shewing in its utmost extent the ravages occasioned by pestilence. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- Much of the country was still suffering from the ravages of the Ephthalites and the consequent disorders. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Poland was ravaged, and a mixed army of Poles and Germans was annihilated at the battle of Liegnitz in Lower Silesia in 1241. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Clennam had been poring late over his books and letters; for the waiting-rooms of the Circumlocution Office ravaged his time sorely. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- The frontier counties all along the continent having been frequently ravaged by the enemy, and greatly impoverished, are able to pay very little tax. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- The canton of Underwald, in Switzerland, is frequently ravaged by storms and inundations, and it is thereby exposed to extraordinary expenses. Adam Smith. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
Typist: Ruth