to ravage someone

[aaronsun666]

The Big Bang Theory Season 07 Episode 18

Earlier Sheldon saw his mother having sex with some man when he came back home.
Scene: A bar in Texas.
Howard: You ready to talk about it?
Sheldon: I’m not nearly drunk enough. Okay. Do you have any idea what it’s like to see your mother ravaging someone?

How is the verb ravage related to sex? I did not find any relevant sense in dictionaries.

 

[truepurple]

Ravage: "to work havoc upon; damage or mar by ravages"
[[Source provided by moderator http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ravage ]]

In other words, to be aggressive in your sex, rough, forceful, perhaps to the point where you do a bit of damage.

 

[joanvillafane]

Hi aaronsun - the word "ravage" is used to mean sexual assault and conquest but usually by men upon women. (It's not a term in common use, rather archaic I'd say.) So Sheldon's statement is supposed to be funny, in using it to describe the woman, who is his own mother.

 

[aaronsun666]

Thank you, T.P and Joan. I have got you.

 

[sound shift]

I would expect "ravish", not "ravage" here. Perhaps it's an AE-BE matter. Perhaps it's not: Maybe Sheldon is not very literate. Perhaps it's something else ...

 

[aaronsun666]

The transcript in #1 wasn't wrong. I played the video back and have confirmed it was "ravaging" Sheldon used.

From my perspective, Sheldon is too literate, sometimes to the point that after looking up all definitions of a certain word/phrase in dictionaries, I still cannot get a clue.

So I guess it's an AE-BE matter as you said.

Anyways, I have got your opinion.

Thank you, S.S.

 

[joanvillafane]

sound shift is correct. But the two words are often confused (including by me!)