devastated

adjective

dev·​as·​tat·​ed ˈde-və-ˌstā-təd 

1

: brought to a state of ruin or destruction

Dr. Dawdy, a 38-year-old assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Chicago, is one of the more unusual relief workers among the thousands who have come to the devastated expanses of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

—John Schwartz

I present here a steady flow model for the blast dynamics and propose that through much of the devastated area the blast was a supersonic flow of a complex multiphase (solid, liquid, vapour) mixture.

—Susan Werner Kieffer

2

: emotionally shattered or distraught

Doug never called. He dumped me for the cheerleader, and I was, in the parlance of teen-age romance, absolutely devastated.

—Marialisa Calta

Mr. Jacoby was devastated; he felt he was a proven winner and should not be yanked for one bad half.

—Ira Berkow

Examples of devastated in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

By the fourth day, the networks were helping a devastated nation mourn with the first presidential funeral on live TV. —Stephen Battaglio, San Diego Union-Tribune, 23 Nov. 2023

Set in a devastated post-war Japan, Takashi Yamazaki’s reboot gets back to basics in grand style, with engrossing human drama alongside spectacular mass destruction. —Richard Kuipers, Variety, 22 Nov. 2023

Beneath the strip’s devastated urban landscape, Hamas still reigns. —Rory Jones, WSJ, 17 Nov. 2023

Now those scenes were giving way to scenes of a devastated Gaza. —David Remnick, The New Yorker, 28 Oct. 2023

Stevie Nicks, who owns a house nearby to the devastated town of Lahaina, shared a heartfelt statement following the fire. —Emily Zemler, Rolling Stone, 4 Sep. 2023

War onscreen, whether fictive or documentary, is often a sort of highlight reel: the excitement and terror of battle, cities in flames, the devastated aftermath. —Dennis Harvey, Variety, 13 Nov. 2023

The group entered a devastated area north of Gaza City via the border fence that Hamas terrorists burst through on Oct. 7. —NBC News, 6 Nov. 2023

The International Federation of Red Cross, one of the largest humanitarian networks for cash and voucher assistance, relies on donations to financially support devastated populations. —Popular Science, 1 Nov. 2023

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Word History

First Known Use

1792, in the meaning defined at sense 1