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

These closures signaled the broader decline of American shipbuilding and devastated regions that depended on these well-paying jobs. —John Garamendi, Mercury News, 16 May 2025

Children carrying empty bottles raced after a water tanker in a devastated area of northern Gaza on Sunday. —Wafaa Shurafa, Time, 11 May 2025

Finally, a devastated Simone was at Joe’s Bar drowning her sorrows when she was hit on by a handsome stranger (Grown-ish’s Trevor Jackson). —Charlie Mason, TVLine, 8 May 2025

Rebels survey Sanaa’s devastated airport The Israeli attack on Tuesday that targeted Sanaa International Airport devastated the airfield. —Jon Gambrell, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 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