devastating
Americanadjective
-
tending or threatening to devastate.
a devastating fire.
-
satirical, ironic, or caustic in an effective way.
a devastating portrayal of society.
adjective
Other Word Forms
- devastatingly adverb
- undevastating adjective
- undevastatingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of devastating
First recorded in 1625–35; devastat(e) + -ing 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
And more recently, Vietnam has been experiencing devastating floods, which mobilized Tran, who spoke to me from Haiphong during a break from his advocacy work.
From Salon
Climate scientists try to explain why global heating is so devastating and why it will get worse from here, but even they struggle to fully grasp something so complex.
From Salon
According to long-standing textbook explanations, this evolutionary shift occurred after the most devastating extinction event in Earth History, which happened about 252 million years ago.
From Science Daily
State regulators ordered Southern California Edison to identify fire risks on its unused transmission lines like the century-old equipment suspected of igniting the devastating Eaton wildfire.
From Los Angeles Times
“California’s current DUI laws are broken and weak and fail to protect families like ours, and it’s devastating,” Braun’s mother, Jennifer Levi, said at a news conference Monday.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
