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destroy

verb
/dɪˈstɹɔɪ/

Etymology

From Middle English destroyen, from Old French destruire, Vulgar Latin *destrugō, from Classical Latin dēstruō, from dē- (“un-, de-”) + struō (“to build”).

  1. derived from dēstruō
  2. derived from *destrugō✻
  3. derived from destruire
  4. inherited from destroyen

Definitions

  1. To damage beyond use or repair

    To damage beyond use or repair; to damage (something) to the point that it effectively ceases to exist.

    • The earthquake destroyed several apartment complexes.
    • Hooligans destroy unprovoked.
    • Iesus answered, and said vnto them, Destroy this temple, and in three dayes I will raise it vp.

  2. To neutralize, undo a property or condition.

    • Smoking destroys the natural subtlety of the palate.

  3. To put down or euthanize.

    • Destroying a rabid dog is required by law.
  4. ›+ 7 more definitions

    1. To severely disrupt the well-being of (a person)

      To severely disrupt the well-being of (a person); ruin.

      • Her divorce destroyed her; she had a nervous breakdown and was severely depressed for more than a year.
      • Other girls in the foster home are eager to destroy her and get her kicked out of the place. It's a tough situation.

    2. To utterly defeat

      To utterly defeat; to crush.

      • Remember when Germany destroyed Brazil 7–1 in the World Cup?
      • Growing up, [Kevin] Durant told me, he was a sore loser. That all changed one day when he was 11, after he got destroyed by his father in a game of one on one in the driveway.

    3. To remove data.

      • The memory leak happened because we forgot to destroy the temporary lists.

    4. To exhaust completely and thus recreate or build up.

      • This exercise is going to destroy all parts of your shoulders.

    5. To penetrate sexually in an aggressive way.

      • She got destroyed by her lover on the carpet.

    6. To sing a song extremely poorly.

      • JAMES CARTER: The man's destroying a classic!

    7. To eat food quickly, hungrily or completely.

      • I could destroy some wings right now.

The neighborhood

Derived

destroyability, destroyable, destroyal, Destroy Dick December, destroyed jeans, destroyer, destroyer escort, destroying angel, destroyingly, downstroy, redestroy, undestroy, undestroyed

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at destroy. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01destroy02euthanize03euthanasia04killing05attractive06power07control08eliminated09eliminate

A definitional loop anchored at destroy. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at destroy

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA