Depopulate

v. t. [imp. & p. p. DEPOPULATED; p. pr. & vb. n. DEPOPULATING.] [Pr. depopular; It. dipopolare; Fr. dépeupler, O. Fr. depopuler. The Lat. depopulari and populari mean, to ravage, originally to fill with (hostile) people, from populus, a people.] To deprive of inhabitants, whether by death or by expulsion; to reduce greatly the populousness of; to dispeople.

☞ 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. The deluge nearly depopulated the earth.

To become dispeopled.