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WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2024rav•age /ˈrævɪdʒ/USA pronunciation v., -aged, -ag•ing, n. v. [~ + object] - to damage or injure severely:The storm ravaged the coastline.
n. ravages, [plural] - great damage, destruction, or ruin:the ravages of war.
See -rape-. WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2024rav•age (rav′ij),USA pronunciation v., -aged, -ag•ing, n. v.t. - to work havoc upon;
damage or mar by ravages:a face ravaged by grief.
v.i. - to work havoc;
do ruinous damage.
n. - havoc;
ruinous damage:the ravages of war. - devastating or destructive action.
- French, Middle French, equivalent. to rav(ir) to ravish + -age -age
- 1605–15
- 1.See corresponding entry in Unabridged ruin, despoil, plunder, pillage, sack. Ravage, devastate, lay waste all refer, in their literal application, to the wholesale destruction of a countryside by an invading army (or something comparable). Lay waste has remained the closest to the original meaning of destruction of land:The invading army laid waste the towns along the coast.But ravage and devastate are used in reference to other types of violent destruction and may also have a purely figurative application. Ravage is often used of the results of epidemics:The Black Plague ravaged 14th-century Europe;
and even of the effect of disease or suffering on the human countenance:a face ravaged by despair.Devastate, in addition to its concrete meaning (vast areas devastated by bombs), may be used figuratively:a devastating remark. - 4.See corresponding entry in Unabridged ruin, waste, desolation.
- 1.See corresponding entry in Unabridged build, repair.
- 4.See corresponding entry in Unabridged creation.
Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers:: ravage /ˈrævɪdʒ/ vb - to cause extensive damage to
n - (often plural) destructive action: the ravages of time
Etymology: 17th Century: from French, from Old French ravir to snatch away, ravishˈravagement n ˈravager n |