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.
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for depredation
Noun
-
What makes that even scarier is that Florida’s road record — an .800 win percentage matched by only 17 other teams in the modern era — actually undersells the destruction.—
The Athletic NHL Staff,
New York Times,
31 May 2025 -
Specialists in contemporary conflicts were interested in studying the building before its destruction because of its former use as military barracks, according to a May 28 news release from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research.—
Irene Wright,
Miami Herald,
30 May 2025
Noun
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The researchers’ hauls add to a growing body of evidence from Maine to Florida that Atlantic sturgeon are slowly staging a comeback since overfishing brought them to the edge of extinction in the U.S. during the 20th century.—
Benjamin Cassidy,
Smithsonian Magazine,
29 May 2025
-
In comparison with background levels of extinction, all of our sources said that current extinction rates are much higher.—
Lauren Leffer,
Popular Science,
29 May 2025
Noun
-
His 2020 documentary Gunda, executive produced by Oscar-winning actor Joaquin Phoenix, examined the life of a pig raising a farrow of piglets who are then seized and sent to slaughter.—
Matthew Carey,
Deadline,
6 June 2025
-
At the moment, most American beef cannot be exported to Britain, in part because of the widespread practice of hormone treatment but also because of other regulations, including those covering the method of slaughter.—
Eshe Nelson,
New York Times,
15 May 2025
Noun
-
These included a shopping mall siege in 2013 that killed over 60, a bus hijacking in 2014 that killed 28, and a 2015 college massacre where 148 people—predominantly Christian students—were killed.—
Tom Rogers,
MSNBC Newsweek,
6 June 2025
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Israel on Thursday recovered the bodies of two hostages who were abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre that ignited the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.—
Bradford Betz , Yael Rotem-Kuriel,
FOXNews.com,
5 June 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Depredation.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/depredation. Accessed 13 Jun. 2025.
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