depopulate
DepopulatedDepopulated (sense 1).
» The rural exodus depopulated entire villages in this region of Germany.
Массовый отток сельского населения в этом районе Германии оставил пустыми целые деревни. — Karok
jhomel · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 senses(not comparable, obsolete)Depopulated (sense 1).
(not comparable, obsolete)Barren, devoid of inhabitants; utterly destroyed, devastated.
Examples
5 sentencesThe rural exodus depopulated entire villages in this region of Germany.
ruМассовый отток сельского населения в этом районе Германии оставил пустыми целые деревни. — Karok
Following the closure of the factory, the surrounding villages began to depopulate.
The exodus has left the region practically depopulated, with those remaining being primarily the elderly or people too sick to leave.
Terrorist organizations like the Islamic State focused on depopulating vast areas in Syria and Iraq.
The United States successfully depopulated Indian lands. In other words, the United States carried out a successful genocide.
Origin
First attested in 1531; borrowed from Latin dēpopulātus, perfect active participle of dēpoFirst attested in 1531; borrowed from Latin dēpopulātus, perfect active participle of dēpopulor (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)). Compare depeople, French dépeupler, Italian spopolare, Spanish despoblar, Portuguese despovoar and Romanian despopora; by surface analysis, de- + populate. Participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Word family
2 related wordsSee also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.