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

For the devastated people of the region, news of a local baseball wunderkind making it in Japan’s big leagues was a balm. —Max Kim, Los Angeles Times, 30 Oct. 2024

The latest hurricane strike comes on the heels of Helene, which left a trail of devastated communities across Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Tennessee. —Kimi Robinson, USA TODAY, 12 Oct. 2024

While the idea of providing fresh water and supplies seems simple enough, in Gaza, the political environment is almost as daunting to overcome as the devastated infrastructure. —Ed Garsten, Forbes, 17 Oct. 2024

The federal departments of Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Interior, as well as organizations like the Army Corps of Engineers and the federal Highway Trust Fund, along with state and local government, help to rebuild devastated infrastructure. —Peter Green, Quartz, 14 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1792, in the meaning defined at sense 1