• Destroy

    Pronunciation

    • Rhymes: -ɔɪ
    • Hyphenation: de + stroy

    Origin

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

    Displaced native Old English shend ("destroy, injure").

    Full definition of destroy

    Verb

    1. (transitive) To damage beyond use or repair.
    The earthquake destroyed several apartment complexes.
  • (intransitive) To cause destruction.''Hooligans destroy unprovoked
  • (transitive) To neutralize, undo a property or condition.''Smoking destroys the natural subtlety of the palate
  • (transitive) To put down or euthanize.Destroying a rabid dog is required by law.
  • (colloquial, transitive) To defeat soundly.
  • (computing, transitive) To remove data.The memory leak happened because we forgot to destroy the temporary lists.
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