desolating

Desolate \Des"o*late\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Desolated}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Desolating}.]
   1. To make desolate; to leave alone; to deprive of
      inhabitants; as, the earth was nearly desolated by the
      flood.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To lay waste; to ruin; to ravage; as, a fire desolates a
      city.
      [1913 Webster]

            Constructed in the very heart of a desolating war.
                                                  --Sparks.
      [1913 Webster]
    

46 Moby Thesaurus words for "desolating":
      agonizing, baneful, calamitous, cataclysmal, cataclysmic,
      catastrophic, consuming, consumptive, deadly, demolishing,
      demolitionary, depredatory, destroying, destructive, devastating,
      disastrous, doomful, excruciating, fatal, fateful, fratricidal,
      harrowing, heartbreaking, heartrending, heartsickening,
      heartwounding, internecine, nihilist, nihilistic, racking,
      ravaging, rending, ruining, ruinous, self-destructive,
      subversionary, subversive, suicidal, tormenting, torturous,
      vandalic, vandalish, vandalistic, wasteful, wasting, withering