skövla

skövla (present skövlar, preterite skövlade, supine skövlat, imperative skövla)

1. (of trees) to fell (on a large scale (causing environmental devastation))

   Tio fotbollsplaner regnskog skövlas varje minut

   Ten soccer fields of rainforest are cleared every minute

2. to devastate, to lay waste to

   De plundrade och skövlade byn

   They plundered and laid waste to the village

• Usually of forestry practices with connotations similar to mow down. Inherently negative in (sense 1).
• Originally to plunder (or legally seize) and lay bare, which appears to have shifted to general vague devastation. Feels natural to put together with plundra outside of the tree sense. Some native speakers might still see plundering as inherent in the word.

• skövling

• avverka

• skövla in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• skövla in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• skövla in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)