RAVAGE

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ravage mean? 

• RAVAGE (noun)
  The noun RAVAGE has 1 sense:

1. (usually plural) a destructive action

  Familiarity information: RAVAGE used as a noun is very rare.

• RAVAGE (verb)
  The verb RAVAGE has 2 senses:

1. make a pillaging or destructive raid on (a place), as in wartimes

2. cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly

  Familiarity information: RAVAGE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAVAGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

(usually plural) a destructive action

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

depredation; ravage

Context example:

the depredations of age and disease

Hypernyms ("ravage" is a kind of...):

demolition; destruction; wipeout (an event (or the result of an event) that completely destroys something)

Domain usage:

plural; plural form (the form of a word that is used to denote more than one)

Derivation:

ravage (cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly)

ravage (make a pillaging or destructive raid on (a place), as in wartimes)

• RAVAGE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ravage    ... he / she / it ravages   
Past simple: ravaged   
Past participle: ravaged   
-ing form: ravaging   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a pillaging or destructive raid on (a place), as in wartimes

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

harry; ravage

Hypernyms (to "ravage" is one way to...):

destroy; ruin (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

ravage ((usually plural) a destructive action)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

desolate; devastate; lay waste to; ravage; scourge; waste

Context example:

The enemy lay waste to the countryside after the invasion

Hypernyms (to "ravage" is one way to...):

destroy; ruin (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ravage"):

ruin (reduce to ruins)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

ravage ((usually plural) a destructive action)

ravaging (plundering with excessive damage and destruction)

 Context examples 

When the day came, its searching light showed the ravages in poor Lucy's strength.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Then how had he been ravaged by the sun?

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Not in a day nor a generation were the ravaged sheepfolds to be forgotten.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

She judged it to be a form of St. Vitus's dance, and she feared the extent to which its ravages might go.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

I ravaged Miss Mills's work-box for a smelling-bottle, and in my agony of mind applied an ivory needle-case instead, and dropped all the needles over Dora.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In a forest of his country lived two giants, who caused great mischief with their robbing, murdering, ravaging, and burning, and no one could approach them without putting himself in danger of death.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Now the richer fields of the North have absorbed the trade, and nothing save these ravaged groves and great scars in the earth show the work of the past.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The serene Teuton found the supper-table and was happy, eating steadily through the bill of fare, and dismayed the garcons by the ravages he committed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And north we travelled with it, ravaging and destroying, flinging the naked carcasses to the shark and salting down the skins so that they might later adorn the fair shoulders of the women of the cities.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps; the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings; and for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)