Definition

1. Verb:

   • To cause severe and extensive damage or destruction to something, often violently or over time.
   • To plunder, loot, or pillage a place, especially during a war or conflict.

2. Noun (usually plural: ravages):

   • The destructive effects or severe damage caused by something, such as time, war, or disease.

Usage

• Verb: Used to describe the action of devastating or ruining something completely.
• Noun (plural): Used to describe the visible, often lasting, results of destructive forces.

Examples

• Verb:
  • The hurricane ravaged the coastal town, leaving thousands homeless.
  • Invasive insects have ravaged the forest, killing many of the trees.
• Noun (plural):
  • The old building showed the ravages of time, with its crumbling walls and broken windows.
  • Despite the ravages of the long war, the people's spirit remained strong.

Advanced Usage

• "to be ravaged by": To be severely damaged or devastated by a specific agent (e.g., war, famine, grief).
  • The region was ravaged by years of drought and conflict.
• "the ravages of [something]": A common phrase highlighting the destructive impact of a particular force.
  • She used expensive creams to combat the ravages of age.

Variants and Related Words

• Ravager (noun): An agent or force that causes ravage.
  • The locust swarm was a relentless ravager of the crops.
• Ravaging (adjective/noun): Describing the act or process of causing ravage.
  • The ravaging storm moved up the coast.

Synonyms

• Verb: Devastate, destroy, wreck, ruin, lay waste, pillage, sack.
• Noun (ravages): Devastation, destruction, damage, depredation.

Related Phrases

• Lay waste to: A phrasal verb synonymous with 'ravage' as a verb.
  • The army laid waste to the villages in its path.

Noun

1. (usually plural) a destructive action
   • the ravages of time
   • the depredations of age and disease

Verb

1. cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly
   • The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion
2. make a pillaging or destructive raid on (a place), as in wartimes