Emily Dickinson Lexicon

DE-POP'U-LATE, v.t. [L. depopulor, de and populor, to ravage or lay waste, from populus, people; Sp. despoblar; It. spopolare; Fr. depeupler.]

To dispeople; to unpeople; to deprive of inhabitants, whether by death, or by expulsion. 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.