Havoc

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈhæv.É™k/

Alternative forms

• havock (e.g. in Milton)

Origin

From Anglo-Norman havok in the phrase crier havok ("cry havoc") a signal to soldiers to seize plunder, from Old French crier ("cry out, shout") + havot ("pillaging, looting").

Full definition of havoc

Noun

1. widespread devastation, destruction
• Bible, Acts viii. 3As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.
• AddisonYe gods, what havoc does ambition make
  Among your works!
• 1918 , Edgar Rice Burroughs , The People that Time Forgot Chapter , 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.
2. mayhem

Usage notes

The noun havoc is most often used in the set phrase wreak havoc.

Old Hungarian Goulash?, The Grammarphobia Blog, October 31, 2008

Derived terms

• play havoc, raise havoc, wreak havoc, cry havoc, break havoc

Verb

1. To pillage.
• 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act I, Scene II:To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
2. To cause havoc.

Usage notes

As with other verbs ending in vowel + -c, The gerund-participle is sometimes spelled havocing, and the preterite and past participle is sometimes spelled havoced; for citations using these spellings, see their respective entries. However, the spellings havocking and havocked are far more common. Compare panic, picnic.

Interjection

1. A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.
• TooneDo not cry havoc, where you should but hunt
  With modest warrant.
• ShakespeareCry "havoc", and let slip the dogs of war!