ravage
RAV-ijverbMeaning to damage badly and violently
Memory hook RAVenous goats RAVAGE the garden. A herd of ravenous goats storms through Granny Mae’s garden and leaves nothing but stalks and torn petals; they ravage it.
Locusts ravaged the valley, stripping every field bare.
In context The wildfire ravaged the hills for a week, leaving blackened trunks where green forest had stood.
Similar ruin, lay waste, plunder, despoil
Opposite restore, repair, protect
From French ravager, from ravir (to seize, to carry off).