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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.

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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

But by March 2013, he’d be dead of cancer, and you could feel something malignant about to lay waste to his country’s social and economic body.

From New York Times Mar. 15, 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

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