depopulate

de·popu·late (dē päp′yə lāt′)

transitive verb -·lat′ed, -·lat′·ing

to reduce the population of, esp. by violence, disease, etc.

Etymology: < L depopulatus, pp. of depopulari, to lay waste < de-, from + populari, to ravage, ruin < populus, people

de·pop′u·la′·tion noun de·pop′u·la′·tor noun

kill, massacre, slaughter, remove the inhabitants from, resettle, evict, oust, exile, eradicate the population of, deprive of inhabitants, commit genocide, commit mass murder, eliminate, wipe out; see also banish 1, kill 1.

Object

village: Maps show the number of Jewish settlements, and, in the Golan Heights, the number of depopulated Syrian villages.
town: The revered memory and names of their depopulated towns and villages still line their hearts and pages of history.
area: Neither was there some period when the Palestinians suddenly arrived in a depopulated area.
country: Wyatt Earp is equally famous in the cheerful business of depopulating the country.
city: It was a poor and largely depopulated city of ruins, and the inhabitants continued to flee in the face of the Ottoman threat.
land: The Cistercians, for example, depopulated land to make room for their abbey at Jervaulx in North Yorkshire in the 12th century.

Modifying Another Word

almost: The island of Mauritius a little time before had been almost depopulated.
totally: The Black Death hit southeast Wales hard, with certain manors almost totally depopulated.
nearly: Why the Asiatic plague that nearly depopulated London a couple of centuries ago.
largely: It was a poor and largely depopulated city of ruins, and the inhabitants continued to flee in the face of the Ottoman threat.
so: Perhaps it was so depopulated in the plague that it wasn't viable anymore.
increasingly: Once prosperous for the flour, wood and furniture it produced from the chestnut tree, the area is now becoming increasingly depopulated.

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