depopulate
verb (used with object)
to remove or reduce the population of, as by destruction or expulsion.
have depopulated
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present perfectof depopulate.present perfect
Used to describe actions that started in the past and continue into or have direct relevance to the present.
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.
There is a poison-tree in the island of Java, which is said by its effluvia to have depopulated the country for 12 or 14 miles round the place of its growth.
From The Botanic Garden. Part II. Containing the Loves of the Plants. a Poem. With Philosophical Notes. by Erasmus Darwin
Notwithstanding their number, had Selkirk wished it, he might have depopulated the island.
From The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or the Real Robinson Crusoe by Joseph Xavier Saintine
The whole neighbourhood was depopulated, as if after a fire or an epidemic; and if Yankel had lived there ten years, he would probably have depopulated the Waiwode's whole domains.
From Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol
There was one young girl, called Julie, who was cruel enough to have depopulated a whole nation of lovers.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 17, No. 480, March 12, 1831 by Various
One of the eyes of this caliph was so terrible in anger that those died who ventured to look thereon, and had he given way to his wrath, he would have depopulated his whole dominion.—W.
From Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol. 1 A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook by Ebenezer Cobham Brewer
