DEPOPULATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Depopulate

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verb

Depopulate v. t. (past & past part. depopulated; pres. part. depopulating) To deprive of inhabitants, whether by death or by expulsion; to reduce greatly the populousness of; to dispeople; to unpeople. "Where is this viper, That would depopulate the city?" Note: It is not synonymous with laying waste or destroying, being limited to the loss of inhabitants; as, an army or a famine may depopulate a country. It rarely expresses an entire loss of inhabitants, but often a great diminution of their numbers; as, the deluge depopulated the earth.

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Etymology of 'Depopulate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Depopulate" Quotes from Famous Books

... the effect that "a man can eat no more than he can hold." Every man gets about the same satisfaction out of life. Mr. Suddlechops, the barber of Seven Dials, is as happy as Alexander at the head of his legions. The business of the one is to depopulate kingdoms, the business of the other to reap beards seven days old; but their relative positions do not affect the question. The one works with razors and soap-lather the other with battle-cries and well-greaved ...

— Dreamthorp - A Book of Essays Written in the Country • Alexander Smith

... the question, it would be found that I should not myself deny the fact of being at war with their whole order. What was the meaning of that? What was it to which war pledged a man? It pledged him, in case of opportunity, to burn, ravage, and depopulate the houses and lands of the enemy; which enemy was these fair girls. The warrior stood committed to universal destruction. Neither sex nor age, neither the smiles of unoffending infancy nor the gray ...

— Autobiographic Sketches • Thomas de Quincey

Words linked to "Depopulate" : shrink, reduce, depopulation, desolate