destroy
Americanverb (used with object)
-
destroys,
present (3rd person singular)
-
destroyed,
past participle, past
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destroying
present participle
-
to reduce (an object) to useless fragments, a useless form, or remains, as by rending, burning, or dissolving; injure beyond repair or renewal; demolish; ruin; annihilate.
- Antonyms:
- create
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to put an end to; extinguish.
- Synonyms:
- uproot, annihilate, extirpate
- Antonyms:
- create
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to kill; slay.
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to render ineffective or useless; nullify; neutralize; invalidate.
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to defeat completely.
verb (used without object)
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destroys,
present (3rd person singular)
-
destroyed,
past participle, past
-
destroying
present participle
verb
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to ruin; spoil; render useless
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to tear down or demolish; break up; raze
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to put an end to; do away with; extinguish
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to kill or annihilate
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to crush, subdue, or defeat
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(intr) to be destructive or cause destruction
Synonym Usage
Destroy, demolish, raze imply reducing a thing to uselessness. To destroy is to reduce something to nothingness or to take away its powers and functions so that restoration is impossible: Fire destroys a building. Disease destroys tissues. To demolish is to destroy something organized or structured: to demolish a machine. To raze is to level down to the ground: to raze a fortress.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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predestroyverb (used with object)
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destroyableadjective
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half-destroyedadjective
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self-destroyedadjective
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self-destroyingadjective
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undestroyedadjective
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well-destroyedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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destroysimple
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destroyssimple
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have destroyedperfect
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has destroyedperfect
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am destroyingprogressive
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are destroyingprogressive
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is destroyingprogressive
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have been destroyingperfect progressive
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has been destroyingperfect progressive
Past
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destroyedsimple
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had destroyedperfect
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was destroyingprogressive
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were destroyingprogressive
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had been destroyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of destroy
First recorded in 1175–1225; Middle English destroyen, from Old French destruire, from Vulgar Latin dēstrūgere (unattested), for Latin dēstruere ( dē- de- + struere “to pick up, build”)
Explanation
When your little brother breaks your carefully constructed Lego village into its tiny parts, he destroys it. To destroy is to completely demolish. To destroy is the opposite of to construct or to build. When you destroy something, you cause destruction, when you build something, you are involved in its construction. In war, soldiers are sometimes sent on missions to search and destroy. This means their job is to find a target and completely take it out. Destroy doesn't have to be physical though. If you get an F in your math class, that could destroy your dream of going to an Ivy League university and too much criticism can destroy your self-esteem.
Vocabulary lists containing destroy
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"Frankenstein"
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Workshop 2, Part 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"This sounds theoretical and naive but you know you destroy nature at your peril and I think we see around the world the consequences of nature degradation," she said.
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
An experimental injection that causes fat cells to destroy themselves has shown promising results in early human trials, significantly reducing dangerous fat hidden deep inside the abdomen.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 11, 2026
And here’s where I counter that a movie about how algorithms destroy humanity has to have some credible humans in it, if only to illustrate its own point.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026
Since becoming a father he finds himself thinking, “Obviously we don’t want to destroy the world, but what do we want to preserve and what kind of world do we want to build?”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
Papá’s slow, painful abandonment had wounded us deeply at first, but we had managed to get beyond it by telling ourselves we were free spirits and nothing could ever destroy us.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Zoe nearly destroys Rushville to save herself, while John almost violates his principles to seize the ring from Hal, per the Guardians’ orders, and take out Zoe.
From Salon ● Oct. 5, 2026
The author’s careful research destroys many Victorian myths about the lives and fates of these women.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
Antigone loses her life and Creon, for all intents and purposes, destroys his own, suffering the deaths of his most cherished loved ones.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
"It destroys the quality of our education… We cannot study normally."
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
This is why my mother destroys everything I make.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
It said it obtained proof that copies of the data were destroyed, but acknowledged there was no way to know for sure.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 17, 2026
"I'm the only person left in the whole village, and the village has been almost completely destroyed."
From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026
The second can happen much later, hundreds or even thousands of days after the star is initially destroyed.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
Around 180 homes were destroyed in the village of Le Porge, the hardest-hit community.
From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026
“Three, four, five … makes no difference to me. It’s destroyed every road up ahead. It’s an ongoing disaster. A national disaster.”
From "Storm Runners" by Roland Smith
One Ukrainian unit reported losing control of drones midflight as a result of the disruption, preventing them from destroying a Russian rocket arsenal.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
Bass has been dogged by high unfavorable ratings since the Palisades fire, which broke out in January 2025 while she was out of the country, destroying thousands of homes and leaving 12 dead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Alarm bells rang loudly when former Anthropic safety researcher Joseph Coxon said he believed the tech had a 10% chance of destroying humanity within the next 10 years.
From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026
Those bodies subsequently melted, destroying the physical evidence and making the oldest chondrules much harder to find in surviving meteorites.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 23, 2026
The sit-in was planned to achieve the maximum national effect and paced to build a powerful and sustainable movement capable of destroying Jim Crow.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
