depopulationn.
/dɪpɒpjʊˈleɪʃən/ The action of depopulating; depopulated condition.† 1. Laying waste, devastation, ravaging, pillaging.Often including the destruction of people, and so gradually passing into 2.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > robbery > spoliation or depredation > [noun]
purchasec1325
ridding1347
riflinga1350
despoilingc1374
preya1375
spoilingc1380
pillagea1393
shavaldrya1400
destrition14..
pillingc1400
pillery1433
spulyieingc1440
rapinea1450
spoliationc1460
depopulation1462
spulyie1464
depredation1483
despoil1483
predationa1500
pilferya1513
pollinga1513
spoil1532
pilling and pollinga1535
pilfering1548
expilation1563
rapt1584
escheat1587
fleecing1593
spoilage1597
depilation1611
manubiary1616
pillaging1629
plundering1632
exspoliation1634
peeling1641
despoliation1658
plunder1661
plunderage1700
spoliage1806
despoilment1822
1462 King Edward IV in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. (1827) 2nd Ser. I. 127 Warre, depopulacion, robberye, and manslawghtar.
1543–4 Act 35 Hen. VIII c. 12 The same Scottes..make..incurses, inuasions, spoyles, burnynges, murders, wastinges and depopulations in this his realme.
1655 T. Fuller Hist. Univ. Cambr. ix. 169 in Church-hist. Brit. The Jewish Law provided against the depopulation of Birds nests.
1665 T. Manley tr. H. Grotius De Rebus Belgicis 68 Committing Rapes, Murthers, and daily depopulations.
1670 J. Milton Hist. Brit. iv. 188 The Danes..infested those parts with wide depopulation.
1741 J. Lawry in Athenian Lett. (1792) II. 44 Amidst tumults, depopulations, and the alarms of war.
1816 Ld. Byron Childe Harold: Canto III xx. 13 In vain years Of death, depopulation, bondage, fears, Have all been borne.
2.
a. Reduction of population; depriving of inhabitants; unpeopling. In 17th cent. esp. the clearance of the peasantry from their estates by the land-owners.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabitant > population > [noun] > reduction or deprivation of
depopulationc1460
dispeopling1529
depopulacy16..
dispopulosity1632
c1460 J. Fortescue Governance of Eng. (1885) v To the grete abatynge of his revenues and depopolacion of his reaume.
1611 J. Speed Hist. Great Brit. vi. liv. 280/2 For the depopulation of the Iland.
1619 J. Dyke Counterpoison 27 Extortion, inclosures, depopulations, sacriledge, impropriations.
1642 T. Fuller Holy State ii. xiii. 100 He detests and abhorres all inclosure with depopulation.
1764 O. Goldsmith Traveller 20 Have we not seen..opulence, her grandeur to maintain, Lead stern depopulation in her train.
1892 Daily News 7 Nov. 6/1 (Paris) The depopulation panic and the necessity of keeping up big armies.
1893 G. B. Longstaff Rural Depopulation 1 ‘Depopulation’ is often very vaguely employed, but here it will be used as denoting a diminution in the number of the inhabitants of a district, as compared with those enumerated at a preceding census.
b. The condition of being depopulated or deprived of inhabitants.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > [noun] > condition of being inhabited > not
soleintyc1400
unpopulousness1605
inhabitednessa1662
depopulation1697
uninhabitedness1727
unoccupancy1816
Adamless Eden1876
1697 K. Chetwood Life Virgil in J. Dryden tr. Virgil Wks. sig. *3 Eighteen other Colonies, pleading Poverty and Depopulation, refus'd to contribute Money.
1720 D. Defoe Mem. Cavalier 199 There never was seen that Ruin and Depopulation..which I have seen..abroad.
1816 M. Keating Trav. (1817) I. 85 Castile and Arragon realize what strangers are told concerning Spain. Denudation, depopulation, and desiccation reign throughout them.
1827 R. Southey Hist. Peninsular War II. 339 The frightful silence of depopulation prevails.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1895; most recently modified version published online June 2021).
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n.c1460