Lay_waste vs Vex - What's the difference?
lay_waste | vex | Related terms |
To completely destroy, especially of a geographical area or region.
* 1990 , (Peter Hopkirk), The Great Game , Folio Society 2010, p. 16:
To trouble aggressively, to harass.
* 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts XII:
To annoy, irritate.
To cause (mental) suffering to; to distress.
(rare) To twist, to weave.
* Dryden
(obsolete) To be irritated; to fret.
To toss back and forth; to agitate; to disquiet.
* Alexander Pope
Lay_waste is a related term of vex.
As a verb lay_waste
is to completely destroy, especially of a geographical area or region.As a noun vex is
(space|esa).lay_waste
English
Verb
- Thirsting for revenge, his troops stormed the fortress of Kazan on the upper Volga in 1553, slaughtering the defenders just as the Mongols had done when they laid waste Russia's great cities.
Usage notes
Sometimes takes "to" instead of being simply transitive. Thus, "...they laid waste to Russia's great cities" would be an acceptable alternative to the quote above.vex
English
Verb
(es)- In that tyme Herode the kynge layed hondes on certayne of the congregacion, to vexe them.
- Billy's professor was vexed by his continued failure to improve his grades.
- some English wool, vexed in a Belgian loom
- (Chapman)
- White curl the waves, and the vexed ocean roars.