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Havoc vs Damage - What's the difference?

havoc | damage |

As nouns the difference between havoc and damage

is that havoc is widespread devastation, destruction while damage is injury or harm; the condition or measure of something not being intact.

As verbs the difference between havoc and damage

is that havoc is to pillage while damage is to impair the soundness, goodness, or value of; to harm or cause destruction.

As an interjection havoc

is a cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.

havoc

English

Alternative forms

* havock (e.g. in Milton)

Noun

(en-noun)
  • widespread devastation, destruction
  • * Bible, Acts viii. 3
  • As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.
  • * Addison
  • Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make / Among your works!
  • :* {{quote-book
  • , year=1918 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=The People that Time Forgot , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=But when I had come to that part of the city which I judged to have contained the relics I sought I found havoc that had been wrought there even greater than elsewhere. }}
  • mayhem
  • Usage notes

    The noun havoc is most often used in the set phrase wreak havoc. Old Hungarian Goulash?, The Grammarphobia Blog, October 31, 2008

    Derived terms

    * play havoc, raise havoc, wreak havoc, cry havoc, break havoc

    Verb

  • To pillage.
  • * 1599 , , Henry V , Act I, Scene II:
  • To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
  • To cause .
  • Usage notes

    As with other verbs ending in vowel + -c, The gerund-participle is sometimes spelled havocing, and the preterite and past participle is sometimes spelled havoced; for citations using these spellings, see their respective entries. However, the spellings havocking and havocked are far more common. Compare panic, picnic.

    References

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.
  • * Toone
  • Do not cry havoc , where you should but hunt / With modest warrant.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Cry "havoc", and let slip the dogs of war!

    damage

    English

    (wikipedia damage)

    Noun

  • Injury or harm; the condition or measure of something not being intact.
  • The storm did a lot of damage to the area.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Great errors and absurdities many commit for want of a friend to tell them of them, to the great damage both of their fame and fortune.
  • (slang) Cost or expense.
  • "What's the damage ?" he asked the waiter.

    Verb

    (damag)
  • To impair the soundness, goodness, or value of; to harm or cause destruction.
  • Be careful not to damage any of the fragile items while unpacking them.
  • * Clarendon
  • He came up to the English admiral and gave him a broadside, with which he killed many of his men and damaged the ship.