2026

Depopulate

//diːˈpɒpjəleɪt//

Definitions

verbdepopulates · depopulating · depopulated

1
To reduce the population of a region by disease, war, forced relocation etc.
Where is this viper That would depopulate the city and Be every man himself?
Similar
depeople desolate dispeople
2
To remove the components from a circuit board.
3
To become depopulated, to lose its population.
[…] the country […] has been rapidly depopulating, and utterly draining of its vital resources, till the unhappy population have sunk to the lowest depth of misery.

adj

1
Depopulated (sense 1).
And ſo in that realme were continually two kynges, vntil the kynge of Mede had depopulate the country, and brought the people in captiuite to the citie of Babylon: […]
2
Barren, devoid of inhabitants; utterly destroyed, devastated .
A world it was to see […] his daily peregrinacion in the desert, felles and craggy mountains of that bareine vnfertile and depopulate countrey.

Word Origin

First attested in 1531; borrowed from Latin dēpopulātus, perfect active participle of dēpopulor (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)). Compare depeople, French dépeupler...

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