How to Use lay waste to in a Sentence

lay waste to

idiom
  • Our home movies and commercial projects both gather power, as the years lay waste to us all.
    Nick Paumgarten, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2022
  • This was the entertainment machine that would lay waste to your friends.
    Dia Lacina, Wired, 5 Nov. 2020
  • Hurricanes, typhoons and tsunamis might lay waste to large swaths of land along the coast of a continent (and all the islands off shore).
    Erik Klemetti, Discover Magazine, 26 Aug. 2022
  • All that can contaminate water and soil, not to mention lay waste to large tracts of land.
    Bydennis Normile, science.org, 1 Nov. 2022
  • Yet, Wilder still has that devastating one-punch knockout power that could lay waste to any fighter at any time.
    Josh Katzowitz, Forbes, 7 Oct. 2021
  • And on that sweet bed of nothing, and only that sweet bed of nothing, Drexel and its allies were able to lay waste to corporate America.
    Bob Ivry, Town & Country, 3 June 2021
  • Just one alcoholic primate denied of spirits can lay waste to hundreds of humans.
    Steven Levy, Wired, 19 June 2020
  • Their intense tropical sun and high humidity could lay waste to even the most modern and high-tech of buildings if left untouched for centuries.
    Darren Orf, Popular Mechanics, 2 May 2023
  • Even if no side wants a war, there is a growing risk of a superpower confrontation that could ultimately lay waste to Taiwan.
    New York Times, 25 Aug. 2022
  • Fenyx faces Typhon, a powerful titan once imprisoned in Tartarus who manages to escape and lay waste to the mythological gods.
    Gieson Cacho, Star Tribune, 9 Dec. 2020
  • Further, this new research posits that massive volcanos on the surface of the planet may have helped lay waste to a lusher, greener ancient Venus that scientists believe once existed.
    Joshua Hawkins, BGR, 27 Nov. 2022
  • Anxiety over the swarms, which can quickly lay waste to vast swaths of crops, grew as the coronavirus pandemic emerged and decimated economies, further stretching governments.
    David Herbling, Bloomberg.com, 2 June 2020
  • If anything, inflation’s potential to lay waste to near-and-dear but outmoded government arrangements is even greater today.
    Holman W. Jenkins, WSJ, 14 June 2022
  • The scholar, fully corrupted by the flowers’ magic and seeing himself as a God-King, simultaneously proceeds to lay waste to all challengers in his quest for world domination.
    Jeff Ewing, Forbes, 20 Mar. 2021
  • If the simulation is accurate, America needs to respond fast to a Chinese attack, and bolster Taiwanese defenses before invading forces can lay waste to Taipei.
    David Axe, Forbes, 6 July 2021
  • Devastating hurricanes that lay waste to whole communities.
    Abby Smith, Washington Examiner, 30 Oct. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lay waste to.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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