Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To break apart the structure of, render physically unusable, or cause to cease to exist as a distinguishable physical entity:
- intransitive verb To put an end to; eliminate.
- intransitive verb To render useless or ruin.
- intransitive verb To put to death; kill.
- intransitive verb To subdue or defeat completely; crush.
- intransitive verb To cause emotional trauma to; devastate.
- intransitive verb To be destructive; cause destruction.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To pull down; unbuild (that which has been built or constructed); demolish: as, to
destroy a building or a fortification; to destroy a city. - To overthrow; lay waste; ruin; make desolate.
- To kill; slay; extirpate: applied to men or animals.
- To bring to naught; put an end to; annihilate; obliterate entirely; cause to cease, or to cease to be: as, to
destroy one's happiness or peace of mind by worry. - To counteract or render of no avail; take away, detract from, or vitiate the power, force, value, use, or beauty of; ruin; spoil: as, to
destroy a person's influence. - To refute; disprove.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To unbuild; to pull or tear down; to separate virulently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure and organic existence of; to demolish.
- transitive verb To ruin; to bring to naught; to put an end to; to annihilate; to consume.
- transitive verb To put an end to the existence, prosperity, or beauty of; to kill.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To
damage beyonduse orrepair . - verb intransitive To cause
destruction . - verb transitive To
neutralize , undo aproperty orcondition . - verb transitive To
put down oreuthanize . - verb colloquial, transitive To
defeat soundly . - verb computing, transitive To
remove data .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb destroy completely; damage irreparably
- verb put (an animal) to death
- verb do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of
- verb defeat soundly
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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read destroy size=`stat $destroy | grep Size | awk 'print $2'`
Archive 2007-01-01 2007
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“For Argos, we could have gone to places with real walls and so on, but the problem was I wanted massive destruction, and the best way to destroy is to build,” says Leterrier.
41 High Resolution Photos from Clash of the Titans | /Film 2010
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It would also eliminate the word "destroy" when used to refer to the humane euthanasia of a sick, injured or suffering animal.
SFGate: Top News Stories By Christie Keith 2011
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It would also eliminate the word "destroy" when used to refer to the humane euthanasia of a sick, injured or suffering animal.
SFGate: Top News Stories By Christie Keith 2011
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Improving that which you intend to destroy is counterproductive and wastes resources.
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Also, the depression only ended when Congress slashed spending by 2/3 between 1945 and 1947 and FDR was dead, unable to again destroy prosperity.
Matthew Yglesias » Fama: Bank Failures Could Have Been Sorted Out “In a Week or Two” 2010
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What took years to destroy is not going to be fixed in 200 days.
Obama aide hints at second stimulus, tries to slam door on tax talk 2009
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Also, the depression only ended when Congress slashed spending by 2/3 between 1945 and 1947 and FDR was dead, unable to again destroy prosperity.
Matthew Yglesias » Fama: Bank Failures Could Have Been Sorted Out “In a Week or Two” 2010
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We need only sit back and watch Griffin destroy himself - his fragile mental state was ably demonstrated by his 'hanging' pronouncement yesterday, trumpeted with a fanfare and withdrawn within hours.
BNP to hold Multiculturalism Conference Dungeekin 2009
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A powerless Hei engages in a fight with Shizume who reveals that the “Izanami” Hei was asked to destroy is actually Yin, which both surprises and baffles Hei.
qroqqa commented on the word destroy
This relationship exists to support such things as the destroy event -- so that when a parent component (such as the root) is destroyed, the parent knows who its children are, and can destroy them before destroying itself.
—Thinking in Tkinter
Gee I love that kind of talk. say in Ensign Parker voice
November 28, 2008