Word.ws English Dictionary

ravage

/ˈɹævɪd͡ʒ/

ravage verb: to devastate, destroy or lay waste to something.

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To devastate, destroy or lay waste to something.
    • Already Cæſar
      Has ravaged more than half the Globe, and ſees
      Mankind grown thin by his deſtructive Sword:
      Should he go further, Numbers would be wanting
      To form new Battels, and ſupport his Crimes.1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1
    • 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.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, pages 334–335
  2. (transitive) To pillage or plunder destructively; to sack.
  3. (intransitive) To wreak destruction.
    Synonyms:
    rack
  4. (slang) To have vigorous sexual intercourse with.
    Synonyms:
    hit, plough, smash, Formal terms, bed, coit, coitize, dight, enjoy, feague
  5. (slang) To rape.
    • And luck in all its moods had to be loved and not feared. Bond saw luck as a woman, to be softly wooed or brutally ravaged, never pandered to or pursued. But he was honest enough to admit that he had never yet been made to suffer by cards or by women.1953, Ian Fleming, “Rouge et Noir”, in Casino Royale, London: Pan Books, published 1955, page 48

Noun

ravage (plural ravages)

  1. Grievous damage or havoc.
    • Would one think 'twere possible for love / To make such ravage in a noble soul!1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 35
  2. Depredation or devastation.
    • the ravages of fire or tempest
    • the ravages of an army

ravage meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

ravage in Tamil

அழி, சூறையாடு

ravage in Urdu

غارت کرنا

ravage in Bengali

বিধ্বস্ত করা, লুণ্ঠন করা

ravage in Malayalam

devastate, lay waste, ruin
തകർത്തു നശിപ്പിക്കുക, അതിക്രമം പ്രവർത്തിക്കുക, നിലംപരി ശാക്കുക, നാശനഷ്ടം വരുത്തുക, കൊള്ളയടിച്ചും മറ്റും തരിശാക്കുക, ശൂന്യമാക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
ravage in Kannada
ಹಾಳುಗೆಡವು, ಧ್ವಂಸಮಾಡು, ಹಾಳುಗೆಡಹು, ಕೊಳ್ಳೆಹೊಡಿ
ravage in Arabic
اِجْتَاحَ ijtāḥa, خَرَبَ ḵaraba
ravage in Persian
منهدم کردن monhadem kardan

Examples of ravage in a sentence

  • the ravage of a lion
  • The villages on either side of the Meyn, which were plentifully stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravages of an invading army.1781, Edward Gibbon, chapter XIX, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and...

All 31 example sentences with ravage

Synonyms of ravage

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of ravage

Forms of ravage

Verb
third-person singular presentravages
present participleravaging
past participleravaged
pastravaged
Noun
pluralravages

Past tense of ravage: ravaged

Plural of ravage: ravages

Origin of 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”).

Words formed from ravage

Words that rhyme with ravage

Questions about ravage

What does ravage mean?
Ravage means to devastate, destroy or lay waste to something.
What is ravage in Tamil?
Ravage in Tamil is அழி, சூறையாடு. See Ravage meaning in Tamil.
How do you use ravage in a sentence?
the ravage of a lion
What part of speech is ravage?
Ravage can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce ravage?
Ravage is pronounced /ˈɹævɪd͡ʒ/.
What is the past tense of ravage?
The past tense of ravage is ravaged.

Words near ravage in the dictionary

  1. rauwolscine
  2. Rauðskinna
  3. rav
  4. rava
  5. Rava-Ruska
  6. ravage
  7. ravageable
  8. ravaged
  9. ravagement
  10. ravagements
  11. ravager

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ravage (page history and authors); ravage (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ravage (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ravage (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ravage (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); ravage (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-ravage.ogg.

Cite this entry: “ravage.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ravage. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.