ravage

From French ravage (“ravage, havoc, spoil”), from ravir (“to bear away suddenly”), from Latin rapere (“to snatch, seize”), akin to Ancient Greek ἁρπάζω (harpázō, “to seize”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹævɪd͡ʒ/

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• Rhymes: -ævɪd͡ʒ

ravage (third-person singular simple present ravages, present participle ravaging, simple past and past participle ravaged)

1. (transitive) To devastate or destroy something.
   • 1776, Edward Gibbon, chapter XII, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], OCLC 995235880, pages 334–335:

     But the most important service which Probus rendered to the republic was the deliverance of Gaul, and the recovery of seventy flourishing cities oppressed by the barbarians of Germany, who, since the death of Aurelian, had ravaged that great province with impunity.

   • 1937, Josephus; Ralph Marcus, transl., chapter VIII, in Josephus: With an English Translation (Loeb Classical Library), volume VI (Jewish Antiquities), London: William Heinemann Ltd.; Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, published 1958, OCLC 768288966, book IX, paragraph 1, page 87:

     Now Azaēlos, the king of Syria, made war on the Israelites and their king Jehu, and ravaged the eastern parts of the country across the Jordan […] spreading fire everywhere and plundering everything and inflicting violence on all who fell into his hands.

2. (transitive) To pillage or sack something, to lay waste to something.
3. (intransitive) To wreak destruction.
4. (slang) To have vigorous sexual intercourse with.
5. (slang) To rape.

• rapid

ravage (plural ravages)

1. Grievous damage or havoc.
   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, OCLC 79426475, Act I, scene iii, page 2:

     Would one think 'twere possible for love / To make such ravage in a noble soul!

2. Depredation or devastation.
   • 1781, Edward Gibbon, chapter XIX, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], OCLC 995235880, page 172:

     The villages on either side of the Meyn, which were plentifully stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravages of an invading army.

   • 1835, Charles Lyell, chapter VIII, in Principles of Geology […] , volume III, 4th edition, London: John Murray, Book III, page 114:

     […] and another Swedish naturalist remarks, that so great are the powers of propagation of a single species, even of the smallest insects, that each can commit, when required, more ravages than the elephant.

   the ravage of a lion

   the ravages of fire or tempest

   the ravages of an army

   the ravages of time

• ravage in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• ravage in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Borrowed from Middle French ravage (“ravage, havoc, spoil”).

• IPA^(key): /ˌraːˈvaː.ʒə/

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• Hyphenation: ra‧va‧ge
• Rhymes: -aːʒə

ravage f (plural ravages)

1. havoc, damage

• gevaar

From ravine (“rush of water”).

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.vaʒ/

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ravage m (plural ravages)

1. singular of ravages
2. (archaic) the act of laying waste

ravage

1. inflection of ravager:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “ravage”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• gavera