destroy.
To damage beyond use or repair; to damage (something) to the point that it effectively ceases to exist.
Meaning & usage
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.
To neutralize, undo a property or condition.
Smoking destroys the natural subtlety of the palate.
To put down or euthanize.
Destroying a rabid dog is required by law.
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.
To utterly defeat; to crush.
Remember when Germany destroyed Brazil 7–1 in the World Cup?
To remove data.
The memory leak happened because we forgot to destroy the temporary lists.
To exhaust completely and thus recreate or build up.
This exercise is going to destroy all parts of your shoulders.
To penetrate sexually in an aggressive way.
She got destroyed by her lover on the carpet.
To sing a song extremely poorly.
To eat food quickly, hungrily or completely.
I could destroy some wings right now.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English destroyen, from Old French destruire, Vulgar Latin *destrugō, from Classical Latin dēstruō, from dē- (“un-, de-”) + struō (“to build”).
Try it on your idea.
destroy has 7 characters. Say it out loud, try it alongside a description of your project, and see whether its meaning fits what you want to create.
These are naming prompts. Meanings and pronunciation can vary; existing brand and domain uses have not been checked.
Explore the name generatorA word with a source.
Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.