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

Seeing the Rays’ devastated home – which had its domed roof ripped to shreds in the October storm – conjures up core memories for the lefty. —Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 20 Apr. 2025

The ceasefire between Israel and Hamas offered an unprecedented window into devastated medical facilities. —Clayton Dalton, New Yorker, 18 Apr. 2025

Photos released by the agency showed rows of Easter cakes stacked inside a devastated building, covered in thick dust, as a huge hole gaped in the wall behind them and rubble piled up on the floor. —Angela Charlton and Hanna Arhirova, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2025

Katrina was the perfect storm for disaster capitalists: Buy the devastated land for cheap, renovate and resell, and raise the rent and property taxes. —Cierra Chenier, Essence, 15 Apr. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1792, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for devastated

• abdicated
• abrogated
• acclimated
• activated
• actuated
• adumbrated
• advocated
• aggravated
• aggregated
• agitated
• allocated
• alternated