pulverize
Americanverb (used with object)
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to reduce to dust or powder, as by pounding or grinding.
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to demolish or crush completely.
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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)
verb
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to reduce (a substance) to fine particles, as by crushing or grinding, or (of a substance) to be so reduced
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(tr) to destroy completely; defeat or injure seriously
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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pulverizesimple
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pulverizessimple
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have pulverizedperfect
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has pulverizedperfect
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am pulverizingprogressive
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are pulverizingprogressive
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is pulverizingprogressive
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have been pulverizingperfect progressive
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has been pulverizingperfect progressive
Past
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pulverizedsimple
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had pulverizedperfect
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was pulverizingprogressive
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were pulverizingprogressive
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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
The site, south of Rogers’ polo field, also was used to pulverize concrete removed from burned properties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 7, 2025
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
Why do pebbles pulverize after they leave the comet?
From Science Daily ● Mar. 21, 2024
When they swallow food, it is sent to the gizzard, where the grinding stones pulverize the food.
From "Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer" by Kelly Jones
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
In a corner stood the frame for the grinding-slabs, or metates, and in it the three plates of lava on which the Indian crushes and pulverizes his maize were placed in the convenient slanting position.
From The Delight Makers by Bandelier, Adolph Francis Alphonse
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
I remember being annoyed with this metaphor of a pulverized lemon half.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Like the trees cut down and pulverized to make Man-su’s beloved paper products, ultimately we’re all being fed into the shredder.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 6, 2026
Almost pulverized at that time by the decrepitude of death, Prudencio Aguilar would come twice a day to chat with him.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
It manufactures neodymium magnets by pouring liquid alloy onto a rotating, cooled disk, then rapidly quenching and pulverizing it to freeze the delicate crystalline structure at a microscopic scale before it can grow.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
From the first notes of its new single “Specter” — a brooding vocal workout for Sebastian that ended on pulverizing riffs — Bad Omens used cutting-edge tools and underground influence to elicit arena-rock catharsis.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026
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
She leaped aside as the monster struck, pulverizing the ground in front of her.
From "The Last Olympian" by Rick Riordan
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.
