- destroy
- destroy, demolish, raze mean to pull or tear down.Destroy is so general in its application that it may imply the operation of any force that wrecks, kills, crushes, or annihilates{
idestroy a nest of caterpillars
}{destroy affection
}{a building destroyed by fire
}{grinding poverty that destroys vitality
}Its opposition to construct is often apparent{it is proverbially easier to destroy than to constructor. S. Eliot
}{very few established institutions, governments and constitutions . . . are ever destroyed by their enemies until they have been corrupted and weakened by their friends— Lippmann
}Demolish implies a pulling or smashing to pieces; when used in reference to buildings or other complex structures (as of wood, stone, or steel), it implies complete wreckage and often a heap of ruins{houses demolished by a hurricane
}{the automobile was demolished in a collision with the train
}The term implies the destruction of all coherency or integrity in a nonmaterial thing and, consequently, of all its usefulness{demolish an opponent's argument
}{people are inclined to believe that what Bradley did was to demolish the logic of Mill and the psychology of Bain— T. S. Eliot
}{his research has been painstaking, and he demolishes a good many legends— Pratt
}Raze implies a bringing to the level of the ground; it may or may not imply an orderly process with no destruction of usable parts{several buildings were razed to make room for the new city hall
}{in 1865 a Gulf hurricane razed the town— Amer. Guide Series: Texas
}The term may imply obliteration or effacement, more, however, with reference to the implication of scraping than to the sense of pulling or tearing down{canst thou not minister to a mind diseased . . . raze out the written troubles of the brain . . .7—Shak.
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
