Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com
Synonyms

lay waste

Idioms  
  1. Ravage, ruin, as in The hurricane laid waste the entire seashore. Originally referring to the devastation caused by attackers, this term has come to be used more generally.


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.

See Examples For:

It doesn’t feel that righteous, after all, to barrel into an undiscovered place and lay waste to its noble, magical creatures or even its largely sympathetic villains.

From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2024

All that can contaminate water and soil, not to mention lay waste to large tracts of land.

From Science Magazine ● Nov. 1, 2022

In the ultra-competitive social-media field, cutbacks can give competitors a lane to lay waste to your business.

From Slate ● Jul. 22, 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

There was no kindness, no gentleness to this departure; nothing human, but rather a degeneration into some demonic substratum of the body that had waited to lay waste to all the lineaments of grace.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party" by M.T. Anderson

Vocabulary.com logo
by dictionary.com

Join 14,000,000 vocabulary learners

Start learning new words today on VocabTrainer.
You'll remember them forever.

Start training