devastate
v.v. to destroy something completely or to make someone feel extremely sad and shocked. You use it when talking about natural disasters or very bad news.
v. to cause extensive destruction or to overwhelm someone with severe emotional distress. Transitive; frequently used in the passive voice to describe the emotional state of a person.
The news of the accident will devastate the family.
The hurricane managed to devastate the coastal town, leaving thousands of people without homes or electricity.
While the fire did not physically devastate the entire structure, the smoke damage was sufficient to render the historic archives completely unsalvageable.
Borrowed from Latin dēvastātus, perfect passive participle of dēvastō (“to lay waste, devastate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)); from dē- (augmentative prefix) + vastō (“to destroy, lay waste”). See vast. First attested in 1638.
The verb is transitive and takes a direct object. It is often used in the passive form ('to be devastated') when describing a person's emotional reaction to bad news.