as in extermination
formal
a usually violent act in which something is damaged or destroyed or in which a person or animal is killed
The town had somehow escaped the depredations of enemy soldiers.
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Recent Examples of depredation
Federal wildlife agents confirmed the two depredation events, which took place Friday and Saturday, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
—
Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 1 Oct. 2025
Despite years of sitting on the sidelines, the United States has an opportunity to reassert itself in seeking to end the depredations of the junta and advance the cause of democracy in Myanmar.
—Dan Swift, Foreign Affairs, 30 Sep. 2025
Four people were arrested, and three were charged felony offenses of assaulting a federal officer, while the fourth was charged with misdemeanor offense of depredation of government property, according to a Department of Justice press release.
—Harrison Mantas, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Sep. 2025
Much of Russian research never fully recovered from the depredations of the Stalin era.
—Scott Montgomery, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
The pack consists of up to 15 wolves of various ages roaming federal public land near an active cattle grazing allotment, where many of the depredation incidents took place, according the memo.
—John Leos, AZCentral.com, 24 Aug. 2025
From July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, Idaho Wildlife Services investigated 99 wolf depredations.
—Nathan Rott, NPR, 21 Aug. 2025
Researchers say more study is needed to pinpoint the causes of angler-shark encounters and whether depredation is actually increasing or simply being reported more often, including through social media.
—Miami Herald, 12 Aug. 2025
Dac Collins, Outdoor Life, 1 Oct. 2025
Despite years of sitting on the sidelines, the United States has an opportunity to reassert itself in seeking to end the depredations of the junta and advance the cause of democracy in Myanmar.
—Dan Swift, Foreign Affairs, 30 Sep. 2025
Four people were arrested, and three were charged felony offenses of assaulting a federal officer, while the fourth was charged with misdemeanor offense of depredation of government property, according to a Department of Justice press release.
—Harrison Mantas, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 24 Sep. 2025
Much of Russian research never fully recovered from the depredations of the Stalin era.
—Scott Montgomery, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2025
The pack consists of up to 15 wolves of various ages roaming federal public land near an active cattle grazing allotment, where many of the depredation incidents took place, according the memo.
—John Leos, AZCentral.com, 24 Aug. 2025
From July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024, Idaho Wildlife Services investigated 99 wolf depredations.
—Nathan Rott, NPR, 21 Aug. 2025
Researchers say more study is needed to pinpoint the causes of angler-shark encounters and whether depredation is actually increasing or simply being reported more often, including through social media.
—Miami Herald, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for depredation
Noun
-
At extermination camps, the Nazis burned the remains of Jewish victims in crematoria to hide evidence of genocide.—
Jesse Kirsch,
NBC news,
4 Nov. 2025
-
In Danis Tanovic’s underseen drama, Farrell plays an Irish war photographer who gets separated from his best friend and colleague in Iraqi Kurdistan in the prelude to Saddam Hussein’s 1988 extermination campaign against the Kurds.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
30 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
There are two questions Gazans have usually asked each other since the start of this campaign of unrelenting and systematic destruction, starvation, displacement and mass killing.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Nov. 2025
-
But catastrophes also tend to reveal deficits in society, and the patterns of destruction and abandonment that followed the fire—which have roots in America’s past and its present—tell us something about the country’s future, too.—
Vann R. Newkirk II,
The Atlantic,
10 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Sam Altman, of OpenAI, has claimed that generative AI could bring about the end of human civilization, and that AI poses a risk of extinction on a par with nuclear warfare and global pandemics.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
5 Nov. 2025
-
And the global population of whales declined precipitously to the point of near extinction.—
Justin Worland,
Time,
5 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The horses would be prohibited from being sold for slaughter or for carriage business elsewhere.—
Brie Stimson,
FOXNews.com,
7 Nov. 2025
-
Such was slaughter that blood could be seen in sand next to piles of bodies in satellite images from space, according to the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health.—
Abigail Williams,
NBC news,
6 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
The horrifying reports of the massacre of hundreds of Sudanese civilians after the Darfur city of El Fasher was captured by the rebel Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last week were the latest chapter in a brutal conflict that has killed more than 150,000 people over the past two and a half years.—
Ivana Kottasová,
CNN Money,
7 Nov. 2025
-
The first of the previous massacres in Darfur occurred in the town of El Geneina, in April, 2023; fifteen thousand unarmed civilians were killed.—
Nicolas Niarchos,
New Yorker,
7 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
After constant requests during two years of war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli military finally brings our correspondent into the territory to see the devastation in post-war northern Gaza firsthand.—
Greg Dixon,
NPR,
5 Nov. 2025
-
In 2005, following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, park officials made the decision to close Six Flags New Orleans permanently.—
Colson Thayer,
PEOPLE,
4 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Depredation.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/depredation. Accessed 14 Nov. 2025.
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