havoc

• havok
• havock (obsolete)

From Middle English havok, havyk, from Old French 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”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈhævək/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈhævək/, /ˈhævɪk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhævək/, /ˈhævɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

havoc (usually uncountable, plural havocs)

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

     Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make / Among your works!

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

     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.

The noun havoc is most often used in the set phrase wreak havoc.[1]

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

havoc (third-person singular simple present havocs, present participle havocking, simple past and past participle havocked)

1. To pillage.
   • 1599, 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]:

     To tear and havoc more than she can eat.

2. To cause havoc.

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.

havoc

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

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

   • 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]:

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