PLAY PODCASTS
depredate

depredate

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day · Merriam-Webster

August 20, 20171m 23s

Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (rss.art19.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.

Show Notes

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for August 20, 2017 is:


depredate \DEP-ruh-dayt\ verb

1 : to lay waste : plunder, ravage

2 : to engage in plunder


Examples:

The bear that depredated the beekeeper's hives has been caught and relocated.

"IDFG Director Virgil Moore … talked to the commissioners about possible solutions to the growing problem of destructive elk tearing down fences, depredating ranch haystacks and pushing beef cows and calves off their feed." — The Challis (Idaho) Messenger, 10 Nov. 2016


Did you know?

Depredate derives primarily from the Latin verb praedari, meaning "to plunder," an ancestor to our words predator and prey. Dating to the 17th century, the word most commonly appears in contexts relating to nature and ecology, where it is often used to describe the methodical, almost automatic destruction of life. That's how the film critic Stanley Kauffman, for example, used it to summarize the plot of the famous horror movie Jaws (1975): "A killer shark depredates the beach of an island summer resort. Several people are killed. Finally, the shark is killed. That's the story."

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Topics

DICTIONARYMERRIAM-WEBSTERENGLISHWORDMERRIAMVOCABULARYLANGUAGEWEBSTERWORD OF THE DAYWORD A DAYWORDS