as in destroys
to bring destruction to (something) through violent action
the hurricane ravaged the state and caused billions of dollars worth of damage
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of ravages
Darren MacK, New York Daily News, 4 Aug. 2025
Noun
As extreme heat ravages New York City this summer, the lives of thousands detained on Rikers Island hang in the balance.
—Darren MacK, New York Daily News, 4 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for ravages
Verb
-
These newly aware companies’ high-speed trading of financial projects destroys the Earth itself, forcing humans to flee to the margins of the solar system.—
Livia Gershon,
JSTOR Daily,
29 Sep. 2025
-
Most of the time, a person’s immune system identifies and destroys these cells.—
Elizabeth Yuko,
Flow Space,
24 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
But on that record, even the happiest songs had a kind of love-among-the-ruins feel, where the romanticism seemed hard-fought.—
Liz Schubauer,
USA Today,
3 Oct. 2025
-
The colt doesn’t know the racetrack he was bred for – the pride of Ruidoso – lies in ruins for the second year running, gutted by floodwaters that turned familiar dirt into a sucking bog of mud.—
Alaa Elassar,
CNN Money,
1 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Americans are used to thinking about automation as something that devastates factory towns in the heartland.—
Eva Roytburg,
Fortune,
2 Oct. 2025
-
The novel is about three teenagers experiencing the joy and angst of their senior year in a New York City high school as the AIDS crisis devastates their community.—
Abdi Nazemian,
PEOPLE,
22 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Ravages.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ravages. Accessed 10 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share