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:
With his golden ponytail, dry sense of humor and uncanny ability to pulverize soccer balls, the 6-foot-5 superstar has established himself as a World Cup sensation—and Norway’s largest ambassador.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
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
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
It cuts, turns and pulverizes the surface soil somewhat after the manner of the plow.
From The First Book of Farming by Goodrich, Charles Landon
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
Entire buildings were pulverized in La Guaira, an area north of the capital Caracas, which also endured severe damage.
From Barron's ● Jun. 30, 2026
Those efforts could be in vain if Haiti’s local economy is pulverized, making recovery efforts more challenging.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2025
The 17-year-old from Cross Ash, Monmouthshire, had been racing downhill mountain bikes since he was eight, wanting to "go fast all the time", when he crashed before a race and pulverized one of his kidneys.
From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2025
She left and returned with shoyu, a spoon, and a bowl of what looked like pulverized sprinkles of dry fish.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
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
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
How could they stay on the same October field against an All-Star team that has just spent three nights pulverizing them?
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 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
“Or Mars—whichever. Maybe that’s why I’m not pulverizing you for asking so many questions.”
From "The House of Hades" 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.
