Definition of "ravage" [rav•age]

• To bring heavy destruction on; devastate: A tornado ravaged the town. (verb-transitive)
• To pillage; sack: Enemy soldiers ravaged the village. (verb-transitive)
• To wreak destruction. (verb-intransitive)
• The act or practice of pillaging, destroying, or devastating. (noun)
• Grievous damage; havoc: the ravages of disease. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""Genocide was the most sobering reality of all," the department said in the 2006 "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices," noting that mass killings continued to "ravage" Darfur nearly 60 years after the world vowed "Never again!" following the Holocaust."
• "Interacting with the wolves is purely voluntary, as they do not initiate the encounter that will (to use the developer's own term) 'ravage' the girl and leave her back on the path, where she can continue the last few steps towards the house."
• "I could not ride any distance in the conventional mode, and was just going to give up this splendid "ravage," when the man said, "Ride your own fashion; here, at"