lay waste
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The trebuchet was the most fearsome weapon of medieval times, a giant catapult that could lay waste to any fortress by battering its walls with boulders.
From Slate • Jul. 7, 2025
The genre, in which gigantic beasts à la Godzilla lay waste to cities and swaths of countryside, is not known for restraint, but “Shin Ultraman” is completely, unpredictably off the wall.
From New York Times • Sep. 1, 2023
All that can contaminate water and soil, not to mention lay waste to large tracts of land.
From Science Magazine • Nov. 1, 2022
So they're happy to do their part to lay waste to the idea that truth has any value at all.
From Salon • Apr. 27, 2022
That fascination has infested me today like the wood-eating bugs that slowly lay waste to our house.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
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.
