laying waste
Ruining everything utterly
Laying waste is destroying or ruining something thoroughly, leaving it devastated or unusable.
The phrase typically describes large-scale destruction—armies laying waste to cities, fires laying waste to forests, diseases laying waste to populations.
Invaders laid waste to the countryside.
The expression can also apply to less literal devastation: The scandal laid waste to his political career.
- razingComplete structural demolition
- burning downDestroying by fire
- depredationPlundering and destruction
- devastationSevere widespread destruction
- destructionAct of completely ruining
total war · plundering · sacking · ruin · annihilation · ravaging · obliteration · shock and awe · carpet bombing · wrecking · scorched-earth · desertification · bombardment · pillaging · slash and burn · eradication · havoc · torching
- destructiondestruction, destroying, demolishing, devastation, ruination
- plunderlooting, loot, booty, pillaging, spoils
laying wastebuilding
Enclosed roofed structure
constructing · creating · preserving · erecting · developing
laying wasterestoring
Returning to original condition
rebuilding · rehabilitating · renovating · reconstructing · regenerating
laying wastenurturing
Supportive care-giving
tending · cultivating · caring for · nourishing · fostering
waste, layer, wasted, wasteful, layers, laying, laid, wasting, wastes