devastate

devastate
    v 1: cause extensive destruction or ruin utterly; "The enemy lay
         waste to the countryside after the invasion" [syn: {lay
         waste to}, {waste}, {devastate}, {desolate}, {ravage},
         {scourge}]
    2: overwhelm or overpower; "He was devastated by his grief when
       his son died"
    

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]
    

64 Moby Thesaurus words for "devastate":
      abash, bring to ruin, chagrin, condemn, confound, consume, damn,
      deal destruction, decimate, demolish, depopulate, depredate,
      desecrate, desolate, despoil, destroy, devour, discombobulate,
      discomfit, disconcert, dispeople, dissolve, embarrass, engorge,
      flatten, floor, gobble, gobble up, gut, gut with fire, havoc,
      humiliate, incinerate, lay in ruins, lay waste, level, mortify,
      nonplus, obliterate, overwhelm, pillage, ravage, raze, ruin,
      ruinate, sack, shatter, shipwreck, shock, spoil, spoliate,
      swallow up, take aback, throw into disorder, unleash destruction,
      unleash the hurricane, unpeople, upheave, vandalize, vaporize,
      waste, wrack, wreak havoc, wreck