destroyer.
That which destroys something.
Meaning & usage
That which destroys something.
A small, fast warship with light gun armament, smaller than a cruiser, but bigger than a frigate.
A larger warship with guided missile armament, usually intended for air defence or anti-ship roles. Often, but not always, larger than a frigate and smaller than a cruiser.
A larger warship with guided missile armament, usually intended for air defence or anti-ship roles. Often, but not always, larger than a frigate and smaller than a cruiser. A starship of comparable role.
Where this word comes from
Inherited from Middle English destroyour, destroyere; By surface analysis, destroy + -er. Designating a warship, it is ellipsis of torpedo-boat destroyer, the longer term appearing at the end of the 19th century and the shorter form early in the 20th.
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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.