lay waste

lay (something) waste

To destroy or ruin something. The military invaded the small country and laid several towns waste in the process. The fire laid waste an entire block of houses.
See also: lay, waste

lay waste

To destroy or ruin. The fire laid waste to an entire block of houses. The plundering army assembled and made ready to lay waste.
See also: lay, waste
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

lay waste

Ravage, ruin, as in The hurricane laid waste the entire seashore. Originally referring to the devastation caused by attackers, this term has come to be used more generally.
See also: lay, waste
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.

lay waste

To ravage: Rebel troops laid waste the town.
See also: lay, waste
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
See also:
  • lay (something) waste
  • lay something waste
  • lay (something) to waste
  • get laid
  • lay
  • lay open
  • be laid to rest
  • lay a (heavy) trip on (one)
  • lay a heavy trip on someone
  • lay a trip on someone
References in periodicals archive
Muslim writers say, "When the locust swarms darken countries, they bear on their wings these Arabic words: We are God's host, each of us has ninety-nine eggs, and if we had a hundred, we should lay waste the world, with all that is in it."
Mary and the Muslims
They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in their assassination campaign, and all the while new terrorists shoot up airports, hijack planes and ships, and lay waste to civilians.
Tactical terror: Americans should take a lesson from the past. In Munich, Steven Spielberg shows how a war on terror can backfire
A big communication campaign, including television commercials and advertisements in major newspapers and magazines, wasn't enough to erase from the public mind the picture of a company whose name is henceforth linked to pollution and profit maximization, to the point that it charters ships in pitiful condition with the potential to lay waste to the environment.
Toward risk governance: in France, a strategic-management consulting firm chooses an approach to crisis avoidance through risk anticipation
We might ask whether judgment ("the LORD is about to lay waste the earth and make it desolate," 24:1) is better than despair.
Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost (proper 23): October 9, 2005
'Getting and spending we lay waste our powers,' wrote Wordsworth.
What a waste
As these millions of migrants cross and recross the United States' southern border, they rapidly lay waste to any notion of "secure borders" in the demographic--and especially the cultural--sense.
Translation Nation: American Ientity in the Spanish-speaking United States
It's pretty much like going on stage with one purpose: to lay waste and destroy everything.
Only crime
HURRICANE Ivan threatened to lay waste to Cuba's tobacco fields last night after ravaging the Cayman Islands.
Hurricane Ivan heads for Cuba
In foreign policy, we'd ordinarily expect to find GOP hawks standing up for America's interests, while dithering Democrats lay waste their talents with Wilsonian skylarking.
Political body snatchers: how can you tell the evil party from the stupid party?
A Birmingham councillor has called for a group of travellers to be evicted before they lay waste to one of the city's showpiece parks.
Travellers 'should be evicted'