Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To destroy completely.
- intransitive verb To reduce to nonexistence.
- intransitive verb To defeat decisively.
- intransitive verb Physics To convert (a subatomic particle) to energy or high-energy particles by annihilation.
- intransitive verb To be completely destructive.
- intransitive verb Physics To participate in annihilation. Used of particles and antiparticles.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To reduce to nothing; deprive of existence; cause to cease to be.
- To destroy the form or peculiar distinctive properties of, so that the specific thing no longer exists: as, to
annihilate a forest by cutting and carrying away the trees; to annihilate an army; to annihilate a house by demolishing the structure; also, to destroy or eradicate, as a property or an attribute of a thing. - Annihilated.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Archaic Annihilated.
- transitive verb To reduce to nothing or nonexistence; to destroy the existence of; to cause to cease to be.
- transitive verb To destroy the form or peculiar distinctive properties of, so that the specific thing no longer exists.
- transitive verb To destroy or eradicate, as a property or attribute of a thing; to make of no effect; to destroy the force, etc., of.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To reduce to
nothing , todestroy , toeradicate . - verb archaic To treat as worthless, to
vilify .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb kill in large numbers
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I remember a “leader” many years ago wanted to annihilate from the world the feeble minded and the infirm along with the other undesirables.
The health care rationing chart that Democrats don’t want you to see. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState 2009
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The word annihilate seems to me to hold a destructive sense to it too so I was beginning to think that Cory had given me a word that I didn't like very much.
podictionary - for word lovers - dictionary etymology, trivia & history 2009
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Hear God speak and may his word annihilate every thought to the contrary: "The Lord thy
The Seventh Day Sabbath, a Perpetual Sign 1847 edition Joseph Bates 1832
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Fifty years later, another man set out to "annihilate" a race of people.
Tim Giago: The Editor Who Called for the Genocide of the Sioux 2009
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What irony given that Secretary Clinton wanted to "annihilate" them all for Israel.
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My contention is that groups strive to win absolute power for their constituents, and seek to "annihilate" the opposition, where annihilation means either assimilation or death.
If Spike Lee had directed Avatar..? Steven Barnes 2009
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He is not only continuing an unjust war by leaving 80,000 troops andscores ofpermanent bases in Iraq, and all over the region, including nuclear carrier-led task forces with enough firepower to "annihilate" any country in the region, but Obama is enlisting many progressive sections of society to support and be complicit in waging a spreading war for U.S. hegemony and imperialist expansion known as the “war on terror.”
An Open Letter To the "Anti-war Movement" in the United States 2008
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But putting an object beyond rightful use when humans have the capacity to use it would "annihilate" the object in a practical respect, treat it as nothing.
Kant's Social and Political Philosophy Rauscher, Frederick 2007
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Williams points out that we could easily "annihilate" Iran or Syria with nuclear weapons launched from submarines.
Those opposed to nuclear annihilation are appeasers and guilty of "handwringing" Glenn Greenwald 2006
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In his Townhall column yesterday, Thomas Sowell takes that a step further and, in the context of Israel's bombing of Lebanon, identifies the real problem as being that we don't "annihilate" our enemies -- using that word twice within two paragraphs:
Neoconservatism and the White House -- Still Married Glenn Greenwald 2006
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