havoc

hav·oc

Use havoc in a sentence

The havoc of a tornado.

noun

Havoc is defined as a lot of destruction or chaos.

An example of havoc is the damage from a hurricane.

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"havoc." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Havoc>.

APA Style

havoc. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Havoc

havoc

great destruction and devastation, as that resulting from hurricanes, wars, etc.

Origin of havoc

earlier especially in phrase cry havoc (see below) from Middle English and Anglo-French havok from Old French havot, probably from haver, to hook, take, hef, a hook from Frankish an unverified form haf-, to seize: for Indo-European base see have

transitive verb

-·ocked, -·ock·ing

Obs. to lay waste; devastate

havoc Idioms

cry havoc

Archaic to give (an army) the signal for pillaging
to warn of great, impending danger

play havoc with

to devastate; destroy; ruin

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"havoc." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Havoc>.

APA Style

havoc. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Havoc

havoc

noun

Widespread destruction; devastation.
Disorder or chaos: a wild party that created havoc in the house.

transitive verb

hav·ocked, hav·ock·ing, hav·ocs

To destroy or pillage.

Origin of havoc

Middle English havok from Anglo-Norman (crier) havok (to cry) havoc variant of Old French havot plundering of Germanic origin

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Link/Cite

Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"havoc." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 19 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/Havoc>.

APA Style

havoc. (n.d.). Retrieved January 19th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/Havoc

Noun

(usually uncountable, plural havocs)

widespread devastation, destruction
- 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The People that Time Forgot, edition HTML, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008:
  But when I had come to that part of the city which I judged to have contained the relics I sought I found havoc that had been wrought there even greater than elsewhere.
mayhem

Usage notes

The noun havoc is most often used in the set phrase wreak havoc.

Verb

(third-person singular simple present havocs, present participle havocking, simple past and past participle havocked)

To pillage.
To cause havoc.

Usage notes

As with other verbs ending in vowel + -c, The gerund-participle is sometimes spelled havocing, and the preterite and past participle is sometimes spelled havoced; for citations using these spellings, see their respective entries. However, the spellings havocking and havocked are far more common. Compare panic, picnic.

Interjection

A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.

Origin

From Anglo-Norman havok in the phrase crier havok (“cry havoc”) a signal to soldiers to seize plunder, from Old French crier (“cry out, shout”) + havot (“pillaging, looting”).

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.