DESTROY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Destroy

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/dɪstrˈɔɪ/ Listen

verb

Destroy v. t. (past & past part. destroyed; pres. part. destroying)

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. "But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves."

To ruin; to bring to naught; to put an end to; to annihilate; to consume. "I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation."

To put an end to the existence, prosperity, or beauty of; to kill. "If him by force he can destroy, or, worse, By some false guile pervert."

Synonyms: To demolish; lay waste; consume; raze; dismantle; ruin; throw down; overthrow; subvert; desolate; devastate; deface; extirpate; extinguish; kill; slay. See Demolish.

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Etymology of 'Destroy'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Destroy" Quotes from Famous Books

... as we please? It is impossible. Who can bind posterity? When I hear gentlemen talk of making a Constitution for "all time," and introducing provisions into it for "all time," and yet see men here who are older than the Constitution we are about to destroy (I am older myself than the present Constitution: it was established when I was a boy), it reminds me of the truces and the peaces of Europe. They always begin, "In the name of the most holy and undivided ...

— Southern Literature From 1579-1895 • Louise Manly

... as we feel that his would be to us? This is our bounden duty of love towards one another; what then should be said of us if we not only neglect this duty, but do the very contrary to it; if we actually help the evil in our brother's heart to destroy him more entirely; if we will not watch with Christ ourselves, and strive to prevent others from ...

— The Christian Life - Its Course, Its Hindrances, And Its Helps • Thomas Arnold

... committed by the Spanish soldiery; for, thinking it would be impossible to keep possession of the place, they began to destroy whatever they could not take away. Immense jars of oil were broken, costly furniture shattered to pieces, and magazines of grain broken open and their contents scattered to the winds. Many Christian captives who had been taken ...

— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving

... had another epoch, which it was hoped would materially and forever destroy its quiet and pastoral character. In the earlier days of the California gold excitement the main road from Truckee and Dormer Lake went into Nevada County and thus on to Sacramento. In 1862 the supervisors of Placer County, urged on by the merchants, sent up a gang of men from Placerville ...

— The Lake of the Sky • George Wharton James

... smiled. "Ah no," he said. "No, your Majesty. Whatever you do, Sire, don't do it with untrained men. A rising in the West would only put you at the head of a mob. A regiment of steady trained men in good discipline can destroy any mob in twenty minutes. No, your Majesty. No. ...

— Martin Hyde, The Duke's Messenger • John Masefield

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