vast-, wast-

Unused water that returns as vapor to the atmosphere before it has been incorporated into an eco-system where it provides benefits for living creatures and plants: Dwight and other climatologists studied the cycle and patterns of consumptive waste, comparing rural and urban water supplies.

A constructive, or contractor, term for two or more fixtures that use a single continuous line as the waste line or the area below the point where the fixture drains into the pipe is the waste line: When designing and building the new home, the architects and contractors were careful to include a system for continuous waste that would drain properly.

To lay waste; to plunder: The continuous bombing of the cities indiscriminately devasted homes, schools, hospitals, playgrounds, and the lives of their citizens.

1. To cause severe or widespread damage to something: The city has been devastated by the floods and hurricanes that have been going on this year.
2. To destroy; to render desolate: The Romans devastated the Greek city.
3. To overwhelm or to overpower people by greatly shocking or upsetting them: The shocking news of the murder was devastating the children who had held onto the hope that their father would still be alive.
4. To cause a person to feel extreme emotional pain and agony: Shirley was devastated by the breakup of her marriage.

Relating to the cause of great damage or harm: Ebola virus is a severe and devastating disease that consists of internal bleeding and very high fevers which is usually fatal for many people who live mostly in some African countries.

1. The state, or condition, of being decayed or destroyed: The government officials viewed the devastation of the city from the helicopter as it circled around the area.
2. The feeling of being confounded or overwhelmed: Hank's sudden departure left his family in utter devastation.
3. An event that results in total destruction: It took years for the city to recover from the devastation caused by the hurricane.
4. Plundering with excessive damage and destruction; ravaging: The crowds that gathered as a result of the shooting of a youth got out of control and caused extensive devastations in the city.
5. The ruination, wrecking, obliteration of something to the degree that it cannot be fixed and so it no longer exists: The train wreck and subsequent explosion caused great devastation in the community.

Descriptive of an action that results in chaos, disorder, or helplessness: The typhoon that swept across the island was the most devastative that the people who lived there could remember.

Someone, or something, which brings ruin or desolation with some form of violent action: The band of marauding terrorists are viewed as devastators because of the destruction of homes and the deaths of people left during their attacks.

Waste or the misapplication of the financial resources of a deceased person by an executor or an administrator: The heirs of the Lawson estate made charges of devastavit against the appointed executor, Mr. Evans, because of his mishandling of the written desires of the late Mr. Lawson.

Any broken or unwanted electrical or electronic appliances which have become items of concern because of the components are considered toxic and are not biodegradable: The city where Sally lives recently started a recycling program for electronic wastes of cell phones and computers.

Any of the various categories of disposable matter that is generated by manufacturing or commercial processes and which usually indicates some kind of hazardous or toxic materials: The city established a working group to monitor the industrial waste of the company that produced plastic films which was located near the river.

Tending to increase vascular tension: The medication which the doctor prescribed was more vasotonic than that which Henry had been using previously.

1. Greater in size, amount, or degree: Howard stood on the tourist lookout of the mountain and admired the vast valley and river system he could see below him.
2. Very extensive in degree or intensity: Hannah experienced a vast relief when she learned that her cat was not seriously ill.

Sharon has a vast amount of knowledge on the etymologies, or origins, of words.

The written assignment for his chemistry course required a vaster amount of research than Harrison had anticipated and so he had to study all night to complete the assignment on time.

3. Etymology: from Middle French vaste, from Latin vastus, "immense, extensive, huge"; also, "desolate, unoccupied, empty".

Latin vastus (short "a") is said to have been distinct from vastus (long "a", [VAYS tuhs]), "desolate"; however, the two forms apparently merged early in Latin, so that the English vast is related to "waste", as in Old English weste, "desolate".

The Latin vastus is believed by some scholars to originally have meant "empty, unoccupied, deserted".

Complete destruction and the waste of an area: The flooding of the river caused incredible vastations in the fertile fields surrounding the town.

Largeness, enormity, bigness: The tourists and Mary were overwhelmed by the versatility of the historical items in the British Museum.