devastating

devastating
    adj 1: making light of; "afire with annihilating invective"; "a
           devastating portrait of human folly"; "to compliments
           inflated I've a withering reply"- W.S.Gilbert [syn:
           {annihilating}, {devastating}, {withering}]
    2: wreaking or capable of wreaking complete destruction;
       "possessing annihilative power"; "a devastating hurricane";
       "the guns opened a withering fire" [syn: {annihilative},
       {annihilating}, {devastating}, {withering}]
    3: physically or spiritually devastating; often used in
       combination; "a crushing blow"; "a crushing rejection";
       "bone-crushing" [syn: {crushing}, {devastating}]
    

Devastate \Dev"as*tate\ (?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
   {Devastated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Devastating}.] [L. devastatus,
   p. p. of devastare to devastate; de + vastare to lay waste,
   vastus waste. See {Vast}.]
   To lay waste; to ravage; to desolate.
   [1913 Webster]

         Whole countries . . . were devastated.   --Macaulay.

   Syn: To waste; ravage; desolate; destroy; demolish; plunder;
        pillage.
        [1913 Webster]
    

devastating \devastating\ adj.
   1. highly critical; making light of; as, a devastating
      portrait of human folly.

   Syn: annihilating, withering.
        [WordNet 1.5]

   2. causing or capable of causing complete destruction; as, a
      devastating hurricane.

   Syn: annihilative.
        [WordNet 1.5]
    

79 Moby Thesaurus words for "devastating":
      acid, baneful, beaming, bewitching, bitter, blooming, bright,
      brilliant, calamitous, captivating, cataclysmal, cataclysmic,
      catastrophic, caustic, consuming, consumptive, dazzling, deadly,
      demolishing, demolitionary, depredatory, desolating, destroying,
      destructive, disastrous, divine, doomful, enthralling, fatal,
      fateful, fratricidal, glamorous, glorious, glowing, gorgeous,
      heavenly, incisive, internecine, keen, killing, mordant, nihilist,
      nihilistic, overpowering, penetrating, radiant, ravaging, raving,
      ravishing, resplendent, ruining, ruinous, sarcastic, sardonic,
      satirical, savage, self-destructive, shining, sparkling,
      spectacular, spellbinding, splendid, splendorous, splendrous,
      stunning, sublime, subversionary, subversive, suicidal, telling,
      trenchant, vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic, virulent, vitriolic,
      wasteful, wasting, withering