What does destroy mean?

Definitions for destroy
dɪˈstrɔɪde·stroy

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word destroy.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. destroy, destructverb

    do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of

    "The fire destroyed the house"

  2. destroy, ruinverb

    destroy completely; damage irreparably

    "You have ruined my car by pouring sugar in the tank!"; "The tears ruined her make-up"

  3. demolish, destroyverb

    defeat soundly

    "The home team demolished the visitors"

  4. destroy, put downverb

    put (an animal) to death

    "The customs agents destroyed the dog that was found to be rabid"; "the sick cat had to be put down"

Wiktionary

  1. destroyverb

    To cause destruction.

    Hooligans destroy unprovoked

  2. destroyverb

    To neutralize, undo a property or condition.

    Smoking destroys the natural subtlety of the palate

  3. destroyverb

    To put down or euthanize.

    Destroying a rabid dog is required by law.

  4. destroyverb

    To defeat soundly.

  5. destroyverb

    To remove data.

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

  6. Etymology: destroyen, from destruire,, from Classical destruo, from de- + struo.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. To DESTROYverb

    Etymology: destruo, Latin; destruire, French.

    The lord will destroy this city. Gen. xix. 14.

    Solyman sent a great part of his army out of the main unto the island, which burnt and destroyed the country villages. Richard Knolles, History of the Turks.

    A people, great and many, and tall as the Anakims; but the Lord destroyed them before them, and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead. Deutr. ii. 21.

    ’Tis safer to be that which we destroy,
    Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy. William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

    The wise providence hath placed a certain antipathy between some animals and many insects, whereby they delight in their destruction, though they use them not as food; as the peacock destroys snakes and adders; the weasel, mice and rats; spiders, flies; and some sorts of flies destroy spiders. Matthew Hale.

    Do we not see that slothful, intemperate and incontinent persons destroy their bodies with diseases, their reputations with disgrace, and their faculties with want? Richard Bentley.

    There will be as many sovereigns as fathers: the mother too hath her title, which destroys the sovereignty of one supreme monarch. John Locke.

ChatGPT

  1. destroy

    The general definition of "destroy" is to cause extensive damage, ruin, or render something completely nonfunctional or unusable.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Destroyverb

    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

  2. Destroyverb

    to ruin; to bring to naught; to put an end to; to annihilate; to consume

  3. Destroyverb

    to put an end to the existence, prosperity, or beauty of; to kill

Freebase

  1. Destroy

    Destroy! was an American crust punk band from Minneapolis from 1988 to 1994. Vocalist Felix Havoc founded Havoc Records in 1992 as a vehicle for Destroy!'s Burn this Racist System Down 7" EP.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Destroy

    de-stroy′, v.i. to unbuild or pull down: to overturn: to ruin: to put an end to:—pr.p. destroy′ing:—pa.p. destroyed′.—n. Destroy′er. [O. Fr. destruire (Fr. détruire)—L. destruĕre, destructumde, down, and struĕre, to build.]

Suggested Resources

  1. destroy

    Song lyrics by destroy -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by destroy on the Lyrics.com website.

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British National Corpus

  1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'destroy' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #4472

  2. Verbs Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word 'destroy' in Verbs Frequency: #334

How to pronounce destroy?

How to say destroy in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of destroy in Chaldean Numerology is: 8

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of destroy in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of destroy in a Sentence

  1. Frank Herbert, Dune:

    Humans live best when each has a place to stand, when each knows where he belongs in the scheme of things and what he may achieve. Destroy the place and you destroy the person.

  2. Frank Herbert, Dune:

    Humans live best when each has his place, when each knows where he belongs in the scheme of things. Destroy the place and destroy the person.

  3. Erich Fromm:

    That man can destroy life is just as miraculous a feat as that he can create it, for life is the miracle, the inexplicable. In the act of destruction, man sets himself above life he transcends himself as a creature. Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.

  4. George Pataki:

    I don't want to see us putting in a million soldiers, spend 10 years, a trillion dollars, trying to create a democracy where one hasn't existed, but send in troops, destroy their training centers, destroy their recruitment centers, destroy the area where they are looking to plan to attack us here and then get out.

  5. Chris Hedges:

    We now live in a nation where doctors destroy health, lawyers destroy justice, universities destroy knowledge, governments destroy freedom, the press destroys information, religion destroys morals, and our banks destroy the economy.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

destroy#1#6266#10000

Translations for destroy

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

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"destroy." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2023. Web. 1 Oct. 2023. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/destroy>.

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    take away to an undisclosed location against their will and usually in order to extract a ransom
    • A. cleave
    • B. emanate
    • C. loom
    • D. abduct

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