devastated

[dev-uh-stey-tid]

adjective

1. laid waste; made desolate.

   After the earthquake there were concerns about asbestos in the rubble of many of the devastated houses.

2. overwhelmed or shocked, especially by profound loss, disappointment, humiliation, etc..

   I’m grateful that no one I knew personally died in the hurricane, but my heart goes out to all those devastated families.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of devastate.

Other Word Forms

• undevastated adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of devastated¹

devastate ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Example Sentences

Farsi doesn’t draw the ending out: just sparsely worded text after witnessing their final chat, followed by a video Hassona had taken rolling through her devastated city, somehow grounded in a palpable, undying everydayness.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“Obviously, we were devastated by all of the loss that’s taken place here,” he said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

"I ended up having no choice but to move back in with my parents and I was devastated."

Read more on BBC

"We are devastated to reach a point where a liquidation is the only viable path forward," said Janice Sears, Sonder's interim chief executive.

Read more on BBC

The world's largest species of seal has been devastated by bird flu, which has wiped out half of all breeding females at a key wildlife haven near Antarctica, scientists warned Thursday.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• broken 
• demolished www.thesaurus.com
• lost 
• ravaged 
• ruined www.thesaurus.com
• shattered 
• smashed 
• wrecked