destroy
- 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.
- to put an end to; extinguish.
- to kill; slay.
- to render ineffective or useless; nullify; neutralize; invalidate.
- to defeat completely.
- to engage in destruction.
Origin of destroy
Synonyms for destroy
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Antonyms for destroy
Usage note
Related Words for destroy
end, consume, wreck, dismantle, ruin, smash, shatter, damage, ravage, crush, impair, sabotage, kill, gut, maim, raze, eradicate, deface, desolate, slayExamples from the Web for destroy
Contemporary Examples of destroy
But at the heart of this “Truther” conspiracy theory is the idea that “someone” wants to destroy Bill Cosby.
“The United States had gone to war declaring it must destroy an active weapons of mass destruction program,” the Times reported.
Would he have been careful enough to destroy the odd pieces of jute you've left so messily about?
Anything less will mean than we are only slightly better as a nation than those who want to destroy us.
Whether or not beta-version wearables are your thing, some technology is just impossible to ignore (or destroy).
Historical Examples of destroy
Nothing but the hand of man could destroy what he was destroying; but his hand shrank not, and it was done.
MalboneThomas Wentworth Higginson
It is a crime which, if persisted in, will destroy the Government itself.
They want their own poor way, and destroy the work of their hands by the sound of their tongues.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Some of us are only fit to destroy what is yet worse than ourselves.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
To treat a child wholly as an adult would be to mock and destroy it.
A Treatise on Parents and ChildrenGeorge Bernard Shaw
destroy
- to ruin; spoil; render useless
- to tear down or demolish; break up; raze
- to put an end to; do away with; extinguish
- to kill or annihilate
- to crush, subdue, or defeat
- (intr) to be destructive or cause destruction
Word Origin for destroy
Word Origin and History for destroy
early 13c., from Old French destruire (12c., Modern French détruire) "destroy, ravage, lay waste," from Vulgar Latin *destrugere (source of Italian distruggere), refashioned (influenced by destructus), from Latin destruere "tear down, demolish," literally "un-build," from de- "un-, down" (see de-) + struere "to pile, build" (see structure (n.)). Related: Destroyed; destroying.