devastating
- tending or threatening to devastate: a devastating fire.
- satirical, ironic, or caustic in an effective way: a devastating portrayal of society.
Origin of devastating
devastate
- to lay waste; render desolate: The invaders devastated the city.
- to overwhelm.
Origin of devastate
Synonym study
Related Words for devastating
overwhelming, calamitous, disastrous, destructive, crushing, mortifying, biting, caustic, incisiveExamples from the Web for devastating
Contemporary Examples of devastating
On the other hand, if you think about it, those basic industrial effects can be the most devastating.
The premise was simple: satire is devastating against tyrants.
Gopal, a journalist who covered the war, gives a devastating account of how the conflict was astoundingly mishandled.
The event was a devastating one for Sierra Leone, deemed a “super-spreader” by The New York Times.
He said the failure to develop a coherent immigration policy would have a devastating impact.
Historical Examples of devastating
If people seldom cry it has a devastating effect on their appearance when they do.
Jan and Her JobL. Allen Harker
Israel was the evil one for whose sin they suffered this devastating plague.
The ScapegoatHall Caine
Remote as many of these jungles are, the plumage hunter is devastating them already.
Conservation ReaderHarold W. Fairbanks
Sometimes it was intermittent, and came down in devastating floods.
Freaks on the FellsR.M. Ballantyne
The plague was not in Bombay then, but it is devastating the city now.
Following the Equator, CompleteMark Twain (Samuel Clemens)
devastating
- extremely effective in a destructive waya devastating war; a devastating report on urban deprivation
devastate
- to lay waste or make desolate; ravage; destroy
- to confound or overwhelm, as with grief or shock
Word Origin for devastate
Word Origin and History for devastating
1630s, present participle adjective from devastate. Trivial use by 1889.
devastate
1630s, perhaps a back-formation from devastation. Apparently not common until 19c.; earlier verb form devast is attested from 1530s, from Middle French devaster. Related: devastated; devastating.