lay waste

Definitions

1. 1

   To completely destroy, especially of a geographical area or region.

   • When she recovered from a bad illness that she had, she laid the whole place waste, as you have seen it, and she has never since looked upon the light of day.
   • Thirsting for revenge, his troops stormed the fortress of Kazan on the upper Volga in 1553, slaughtering the defenders just as the Mongols had done when they laid waste Russia's great cities.
2. 2

   simple past of lie waste

The neighborhood