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.

Researchers say cancer cells need to run out of pyrimidine building blocks, including uridine nucleotides, before the cells will self-destruct.

From Science Daily • Nov. 26, 2024

"I think it's a campaign slogan. I don't think it's ever going to happen. They will self-destruct by getting behind it," he claimed.

From Fox News • Jun. 13, 2019

Better still, your old life will self-destruct in five seconds.

From The New Yorker • Jul. 26, 2018

Even after they solve the world’s problems, including the possibility that humans will self-destruct, the Overlords maintain their moratorium on science.

From Slate • Dec. 14, 2015

In fact, it could well be the case that life, once it becomes complex, is inherently unstable and will self-destruct within a few thousand years.

From "Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences" by John Allen Paulos