transitive verb. To lay waste; destroy.

transitive verb. To overwhelm; confound; stun.

To lay waste; ravage; make desolate.

Synonyms To harry, waste, strip, pillage, plunder.

transitive verb. To lay waste; to ravage; to desolate.

verb. To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.

verb. To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.

verb. To break beyond recovery or repair so that the only options are abandonment or the clearing away of useless remains (if any) and starting over.

verb. overwhelm or overpower

verb. cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly

"Bubonic plague, a disease which at intervals has swept over the whole world, familiar to all who recall their history as the terrible Black Death of Europe and the plague described by Pepys and Defoe, will never again devastate the more civilized portions of the earth."

devastation  

overcome  overpower  overtake  overwhelm  sweep over  

appal  catastrophic  deadly  destructive  disastrous  

abash  bring to ruin  chagrin  condemn  confound  

devastated  devastates  devastating