Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Ravage

Rav′age (răv′āj; 48), n. [F., fr. (assumed) L. rapagium, rapaticum, fr. rapere to carry off by force, to ravish. See Rapacious, Ravish.] Desolation by violence; violent ruin or destruction; devastation; havoc; waste; as, the ravage of a lion; the ravages of fire or tempest; the ravages of an army, or of time.

Would one think 't were possible for love To make such ravage in a noble soul? Addison.

Syn. — Despoilment; devastation; desolation; pillage; plunder; spoil; waste; ruin.

Rav′age, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ravaged (-ājd); p. pr. & vb. n. Ravaging (-ā·jĭng).] [F. ravager. See Ravage, n.] To lay waste by force; to desolate by violence; to commit havoc or devastation upon; to spoil; to plunder; to consume.

Already Cæsar Has ravaged more than half the globe. Addison.

His lands were daily ravaged, his cattle driven away. Macaulay.

Syn. — To despoil; pillage; plunder; sack; spoil; devastate; desolate; destroy; waste; ruin.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.