lay waste

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

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

Nick Cage wrote: “Hopefulness is not a neutral position.... It is adversarial. It is the warrior emotion that can lay waste to cynicism.”

From Los Angeles Times

As he ransacks the federal government, trying to push out federal employees and lay waste to the ability of regulatory agencies to do their work, the last thing most people will assume motivates him is Christian fervor.

From Salon

Trump throwing a wrench into the ability of the NIH to fund infectious disease research looks very much like the first step in Kennedy's scheme to lay waste to medical infrastructure to protect people from such illnesses.

From Salon

Those programs are incredibly popular, creating a political firewall that may tank the plans to lay waste to the health care of millions.

From Salon

Related Words

• consume 
• crush 
• damage 
• dismantle 
• end 
• eradicate 
• gut 
• impair 
• kill 
• maim 
• ravage 
• raze 
• ruin 
• sabotage 
• shatter 
• smash 
• smash-up 
• wipe out 
• wreck