havoc

plural havocs · alternative obsolete hauocke · alternative obsolete havock · alternative obsolete havok

1. uncountableusuallyWidespread devastation and destruction.

   Ye Gods, what Havock does Ambition make / Among your Works!

   1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1

   2 more examples

   I [Paul the Apostle] vvas going to Damaſcus vvith Letters from the High Prieſt to make Havock of God's People there, as I had made Havock of them in other places. Theſe bloody Letters vvas not impoſed upon me. I vvent to the High Prieſt and deſired them of him, Acts 9. 1, 2. And yet he [God] ſaved me!

   1688, John Bunyan, Good News for the Vilest of Men, or, A Help for Despairing Souls. […], London: […] George Larkin, […], →OCLC, page 59

   But when I had come to that part of the city which I judged to have contained the relics I sought I found havoc that had been wrought there even greater than elsewhere.

   1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The People that Time Forgot, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008

2. uncountableusuallyMayhem.

present singular third person havocs · participle present havocking · participle past havocked · past havocked · alternative obsolete hauocke · alternative obsolete havock · alternative obsolete havok

1. To pillage.

   To tear and havoc more than she can eat.

   1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

2. To cause havoc.

alternative obsolete hauocke · alternative obsolete havock · alternative obsolete havok

1. A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.

   Cry "havoc", and let slip the dogs of war!

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]

   1 more example

   Do not cry havoc, where you should but hunt / With modest warrant.

   c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)