pulverize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
pulverizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pulverized,
past participle, past
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pulverizing
present participle
-
to reduce to dust or powder, as by pounding or grinding.
-
to demolish or crush completely.
-
Slang. to defeat, hurt badly, or, figuratively, render helpless.
The Kid pulverized Jackson with a series of brutal lefts. He's a veteran nightclub comic who can pulverize any audience in seconds.
verb (used without object)
-
pulverizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
pulverized,
past participle, past
-
pulverizing
present participle
verb
-
to reduce (a substance) to fine particles, as by crushing or grinding, or (of a substance) to be so reduced
-
(tr) to destroy completely; defeat or injure seriously
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pulverizesimple
-
pulverizessimple
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have pulverizedperfect
-
has pulverizedperfect
-
am pulverizingprogressive
-
are pulverizingprogressive
-
is pulverizingprogressive
-
have been pulverizingperfect progressive
-
has been pulverizingperfect progressive
Past
-
pulverizedsimple
-
had pulverizedperfect
-
was pulverizingprogressive
-
were pulverizingprogressive
-
had been pulverizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of pulverize
1575–85; < Late Latin pulverizāre to reduce to powder, equivalent to Latin pulver- (stem of pulvis; akin to pollen ) dust + -izāre -ize
Explanation
When you pulverize something, you break it up until it becomes dust or powder. You might pulverize coffee beans in a grinder, running it until the coffee turns to powder. Pulvis is the Latin word for "dust." When something is turned into dust, often it becomes useless. That's why pulverize can also mean "to destroy or demolish." Construction crews pulverize a building using wrecking balls and sometimes even explosives. The materials left behind are broken into such small parts that they can't be salvaged for other uses.
Vocabulary lists containing pulverize
The Lightning Thief
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List 2
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Hatchet
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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:
Norman’s ability to pulverize the ball off the tee led him to British Open victories in 1986 and 1993, though his near misses were just as memorable.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 20, 2025
Then they used a grinder to pulverize the frozen sweets into a coarse powder.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2024
Do not pulverize in a machine, just chop fine, then mix with crumbs and coconut in a bowl and set aside.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2024
"Because there is more comet dust closer to the Sun, we had expected collisions there would pulverize the pebbles that much faster," says Jenniskens.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 21, 2024
Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.
From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan
In this recipe at Food & Wine, David Chang "pulverizes the kombu to a powder and blends it with softened butter to baste striped bass fillets."
From Salon ● May 14, 2024
For Alcaraz, who positively pulverizes the ball, the drop shot plays a different role.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2022
ROCHESTER, NEW YORK—Every year, Ranga Dias pulverizes about $100,000 in diamonds, crushing them to a gray powder he tosses in the trash.
From Science Magazine ● Aug. 26, 2021
But in rare instances, “we have seen a failure mode where the core pulverizes and falls back into the hole.”
From Scientific American ● Aug. 12, 2021
It is usually made of over-lapping heavy planks, and when floated over the surface, it both pulverizes and packs the soil.
From Crops and Methods for Soil Improvement by Alva Agee
Plunging some 4,000 feet into a valley below, the ice pulverized into water upon impact to create a devastating flood, with the rock debris adding to the destructive power of the ice-and-rock avalanche.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Drizzle with the melted butter and olive oil, then toss gently until the cracker pieces are coated but not pulverized.
From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2026
Boos followed Venezuela's interim leader Delcy Rodriguez during a visit to a Caracas neighborhood pulverized by two massive earthquakes.
From Barron's ● Jun. 27, 2026
“This is the tragedy of Karbala,” the crowd responded as the procession trudged through Nabatieh’s central district, pulverized after weeks of intense Israeli strikes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026
She rendered goat fat into something like butter, and pulverized antelope meat into hamburgers with a device I think had been rigged from the propeller of a motorboat.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Yet Garrett’s ability to rack up sacks in spite of the Browns’ woes makes him an extraordinary outlier among the small club of elite players who specialize in pulverizing quarterbacks into dust.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
Che drops a few chemicals into the vials, which also contain a small metal bead, and place them into a countertop device that shakes the containers, pulverizing the contents.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 17, 2023
In contrast, corn chips are created by pulverizing corn kernels into a dough, mixing it with water, and subjecting the slurry to intense heat and pressure using an extruder.
From Slate ● Jul. 18, 2023
The water’s natural capacity to store carbon can be boosted by pulverizing and adding alkaline rocks such as basalt or limestone.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 14, 2023
Dimple yelled, her voice crashing into him, reaching into his chest, and pulverizing his heart.
From "When Dimple Met Rishi" by Sandhya Menon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
