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Devastate vs Shatter - What's the difference?

devastate | shatter | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between devastate and shatter

is that devastate is to ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest while shatter is to violently break something into pieces.

As a noun shatter is

a fragment of anything shattered.

devastate

English

Verb

(devastat)
  • To ruin many or all things over a large area, such as most or all buildings of a city, or cities of a region, or trees of a forest.
  • To destroy a whole collection of related ideas, beliefs, and strongly held opinions.
  • To break beyond recovery or repair so that the only options are abandonment or the clearing away of useless remains (if any) and starting over.

    • Related terms

    * devastation

    External links

    * * * ----

    shatter

    English

    (wikipedia shatter)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • to violently break something into pieces.
    • The miners used dynamite to shatter rocks.
    a high-pitched voice that could shatter glass
    The old oak tree has been shattered by lightning.
  • to destroy or disable something.
  • to smash, or break into tiny pieces.
  • to dispirit or emotionally defeat
    • to be shattered''' in intellect; to have '''shattered''' hopes, or a '''shattered constitution
  • * 1984 Martyn Burke, The commissar's report, p36
    • Your death will shatter him. Which is what I want. Actually, I would prefer to kill him.
  • * 1992 Rose Gradym "Elvis Cures Teen's Brain Cancer!" Weekly World News , Vol. 13, No. 38 (23 June, 1992), p41
    • A CAT scan revealed she had an inoperable brain tumor. The news shattered Michele's mother.
  • * 2006 A. W. Maldonado, Luis Muñoz Marín: Puerto Rico's democratic revolution, p163
    • The marriage, of course, was long broken but Munoz knew that asking her for a divorce would shatter her.
  • * Norris
    • a man of a loose, volatile, and shattered humour
  • (obsolete) To scatter about.
  • * Milton
    • Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) A fragment of anything shattered.
    • to break a glass into shatters
    (Jonathan Swift)

    Anagrams

    * * English ergative verbs