devastated

1. 1
   adjective

   Feeling extremely upset and shocked, typically after bad news, a loss, or a sudden disappointment.

   The family was devastated by the news of the accident.

   Fans were devastated when their team lost in the final seconds.

   Similarheartbroken, shattered, crushed, distraught, shocked

   Oppositeelated, delighted, overjoyed, thrilled

   Note

   The emotional sense describes how a person, a family or a crowd of fans feels after bad news. It usually takes by (devastated by the news) or a when-clause (devastated when she found out). Like other feeling adjectives it grades: more devastated, most devastated. After be, the adjective and the passive of the verb form can look identical. Was devastated by the news reads either way, and the meaning hardly changes.

2. 2
   adjective

   Laid waste; ruined or ravaged, as by war, fire, or natural disaster.

   The earthquake left the coastal region completely devastated.

   Aid workers struggled to reach the devastated countryside.

   Similarruined, destroyed, wrecked, flattened, desolate

   Oppositeintact, undamaged, unscathed, untouched

3. 3
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of devastate.

   The wildfire devastated thousands of acres of forest.

   Years of drought had devastated the local farms.

   Note

   One spelling does three jobs. On its own it is the simple past (the wildfire devastated the forest). With had it forms the past perfect, and with be it forms the passive. The verb behind it reaches beyond land and cities to ideas and beliefs, and to people, whom it can leave in intense grief or dismay. That last use is where the "shocked" adjective comes from.

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