asolar

To raze, devastate, or lay waste to a place — used for wars, fires, storms, or plagues that destroy something on a large scale (la guerra asoló la región). It's historically two different verbs that collapsed into one spelling: this "raze" sense (from Latin ad- + solum, "ground") is irregular and can diphthongize like contar (asuela), while a much rarer sense meaning "to scorch or wither by sun" (from sol) was always regular. In practice, modern usage overwhelmingly conjugates it as fully regular (asolo, asolas, asola).

• El huracán asoló la costa entera. — The hurricane devastated the entire coast.
• Una plaga de langostas asoló los cultivos. — A locust plague ravaged the crops.
• La guerra asoló ciudades enteras en pocos meses. — The war laid waste to entire cities in a few months.

Assuming asuela is a typo or a different verb from asola — both are accepted conjugated forms of the same verb, a genuine leftover of two historical asolars merging into one; most speakers today just use the regular asola/asolan forms and never touch asuela.

Often confused with arrasar.