destroy

I

(Roget's IV) v.

1. [To bring to nothing]

Syn. ruin, demolish, exterminate, raze, annihilate, tear down, throw down, plunder, ransack, pillage, eradicate, do away with, overthrow, cause the downfall of, devastate, swallow up, butcher, extirpate, consume, liquidate, break up, dissolve, blot out, cast down, put down, quash, quell, level, abort, stamp out, suppress, squelch, scuttle, undo, ravage, lay waste, spoliate, root up, overturn, annul, impair, damage, ravish, deface, maraud, dilapidate, expunge, efface, sweep over, sweep away, shatter, split up, crush, obliterate, burn to the ground, knock to pieces, break to pieces, destruct, self-destruct, abolish, crash, extinguish, put an end to, desolate, dynamite, put a damper on, wrench apart, tear apart, wreck, dismantle, fell, upset, bomb, stave in, despoil, sack, subvert, mutilate, smash, trample, maim, mar, vitiate, end, counteract, nullify, blast, neutralize, gut, snuff out, erase, sabotage, repeal, pull down, pull to pieces, terminate, conclude, finish, bring to ruin, stop, put a stop to, dissipate, dispel, wipe out, do in*, make away with*, finish off*, make short work of*, total*, scorch*, blitz*, cream*, foul up*, make mincemeat of*, seal the doom of, lay in ruins; see also defeat 2 , ravage .

Ant. build*, construct, establish.

2. [To kill]

Syn. murder, slay, slaughter; see kill 1 .

Syn.- destroy implies a tearing down or bringing to an end by wrecking, ruining, killing, eradicating, etc. and is the term of broadest application here [ to destroy a city, one's influence, etc. ] ; demolish implies such destructive force as to completely smash to pieces and render useless [ the bombs demolished the factories, she demolished his argument ] ; raze means to level to the ground, either destructively or by systematic wrecking with a salvaging of useful parts; to annihilate is to destroy so completely as to blot out of existence [ rights that cannot be annihilated]

II

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) v.

demolish, annihilate, wreck, devastate, wipe out, *total, raze, extirpate, ruin, ravage, obliterate, eradicate, *cream, level, waste, quash, *gut, *nuke, crush.

ANT.: create, build, preserve

III

(Roget's Thesaurus II) verb 1. To cause the complete ruin or wreckage of: bankrupt, break down, cross up, demolish, finish, ruin, shatter, sink, smash, spoil, torpedo, undo, wash up, wrack2, wreck. Slang: total. Idiom: put the kibosh on. See HELP. 2. To pull down or break up so that reconstruction is impossible: demolish, dismantle, dynamite, knock down, level, pull down, pulverize, raze, tear down, wreck. Aerospace: destruct. See HELP. 3. To cause the death of: carry off, cut down, cut off, dispatch, finish (off), kill1, slay. Slang: waste, zap. Idioms: put an end to, put to sleep. See HELP. 4. To take the life of (a person or persons) unlawfully: finish (off), kill1, liquidate, murder, slay. Informal: put away. Slang: bump off, do in, knock off, off, rub out, waste, wipe out, zap. See HELP. 5. To impair severely something such as the spirit, health, or effectiveness of: break, crush, overwhelm, ruin. See HELP.