How to Use devastate in a Sentence

devastate

verb

• The flood devastated the town.
• The disease has devastated the area's oak tree population.
• The hurricane left the island completely devastated.
• Jackson said she is still devastated over the loss of her youngest son.
  — Kelly Davis, The Mercury News, 4 Nov. 2024
• In the treeless Aleutians, rats can devastate birds that nest on the ground.
  — Morgan Krakow, Anchorage Daily News, 28 Nov. 2021
• If just one nuclear weapon survives to devastate a city, the attack will have failed.
  — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 28 Oct. 2021
• But, for now at least, South African officials are optimistic that the variant may not devastate the country's health care system.
  — Grady McGregor, Fortune, 6 Dec. 2021
• Their arrival was like pouring gasoline on a smoldering fire—igniting a brutal fifteen-year civil war that devastated the country.
  — David Faris, Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2024
• The continuation of the war, meanwhile, is devastating Ukraine.
  — Richard Haass, Foreign Affairs, 4 Nov. 2024
• Scientists have only identified around 40% of small objects in space, including asteroids, that have the potential to devastate a city.
  — Fortune, 23 Nov. 2021
• The end of these monthly payments will financially devastate many American families, pushing them back into poverty.
  — Washington Post, 9 Dec. 2021
• Hashem was devastated to the point of backing out of the deal.
  — Nate Jackson, Los Angeles Times, 8 June 2023
• The part of the island which includes the historic town Lahaina was devastated by the fires.
  — Analisa Novak, CBS News, 19 Sep. 2023
• The Coquette’s jealousy leads the Baron, the host of the ball, to stab the Poet; the Sleepwalker, devastated, carries him away.
  — Gia Kourlas, New York Times, 3 Oct. 2023
• The fact of the matter is Lindsay is devastated and I'm crushed with how all this transpired.
  — Bailey Richards, Peoplemag, 9 Nov. 2023
• This week marks three months of war that continues to devastate Gaza as the bodies and rubble pile up in the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre.
  — TIME, 11 Jan. 2024
• Frankenstein the novel is about many things, including the life of the mind and how the human heart divides and devastates us.
  — Mikal Gilmore, Rolling Stone, 31 Oct. 2023
• And deluges and floods devastated areas around the world.
  — Tom Yulsman, Discover Magazine, 29 Jan. 2024
• He was devastated but didn’t know what else to do other than accept they were lost and move on.
  — Jonathan Edwards, Washington Post, 6 Nov. 2023
• On May 13, we were devastated to hear that the royal family of the Netherlands had sailed to Britain.
  — Smithsonian Magazine, 15 May 2023
• So, when Garcia received the news from the vet in June that Nala had cancer, she was devastated.
  — Jordan Greene, Peoplemag, 13 Aug. 2024
• Coal plants can be the largest employer in a region, and plant closures can devastate the towns and counties that host them.
  — Ryan Randazzo, The Arizona Republic, 8 Oct. 2022
• More than a decade later, fans of the wildly popular group were devastated to learn of the death of Liam Payne last week at age 31.
  — Katie Atkinson, Billboard, 22 Oct. 2024
• This leaves the band’s fans devastated, including a young boy named Sea (played by Chang).
  — Sara Merican, Deadline, 7 Aug. 2024
• The 29-year-old was just one of the scores of foreigners who became caught up in the attack that has devastated families around the world.
  — Heather Chen, CNN, 13 Oct. 2023
• Gazans welcomed the prospect of a lull in the fighting that has devastated much of their territory.
  — Hiba Yazbek, New York Times, 22 Nov. 2023
• Both cousins were devastated over their younger cousin’s loss.
  — Kerry Burke, New York Daily News, 13 Aug. 2024
• The return of an active rail route through this desert landscape would devastate the unique and in many places sacred character of the area.
  — Ernie Cowan, San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Jan. 2023
• Otters eat sea urchins, which can devastate kelp forests.
  — Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 May 2022
• Taylor was devastated when Todd died a year later in a plane crash.
  — Bryan Alexander, USA TODAY, 4 Aug. 2024

Last Updated: 7 Dec 2024