annihilate
[uh-nahy-uh-leyt]
- to reduce to utter ruin or nonexistence; destroy utterly: The heavy bombing almost annihilated the city.
- to destroy the collective existence or main body of; wipe out: to annihilate an army.
- to annul; make void: to annihilate a law.
- to cancel the effect of; nullify.
- to defeat completely; vanquish: Our basketball team annihilated the visiting team.
Show More
Origin of annihilate
Synonyms
See more synonyms for annihilate on Thesaurus.com1. ravage, devastate, desolate. 1, 2. smash, obliterate, demolish.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for annihilate
Contemporary Examples
The J in its name actually stands for Jian—annihilate, eliminate.
“Thirty minutes alone with a man is enough for him to annihilate you,” she remarks, knowingly.
Finally there was the atomic bomb (and the Cold War it created): machine threatened to annihilate all of mankind.
He then went on to compare us to Amalek, the Biblical nation that God commands the Jews to annihilate.
The consequences of the repeated failed attempts to annihilate Israel should and will be reflected in the final status.
Historical Examples
Our presence bestows not being on it: our absence does not annihilate it.
She can create and annihilate, and dispose at pleasure her woods, her rocks, and her rivers.
Modern Painters Volume II (of V)John Ruskin
At such times, Mr. Quinn felt as if he could annihilate an Englishman.
Changing WindsSt. John G. Ervine
He tried to close his senses, to subdue and annihilate them.
Abbe Mouret's TransgressionEmile Zola
Nothing is more difficult than to expose or annihilate a falsehood.
The Cat of BubastesG. A. Henty
annihilate
- (tr) to destroy completely; extinguish
- (tr) informal to defeat totally, as in debate or argument
- (intr) physics to undergo annihilation
Show More
Word Origin
C16: from Late Latin annihilāre to bring to nothing, from Latin nihil nothing
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for annihilate
v.
1520s, from an obsolete adjective meaning "reduced to nothing" (late 14c.), originally the past participle of a verb, anihil, from Old French annichiler (14c.), from Late Latin annihilare "to reduce to nothing," from Latin ad- "to" (see ad-) + nihil "nothing" (see nil). Related: Annihilated; annihilating.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper