destroy

DESTROY, verb transitive [Latin To pile, to build.] 1. To demolish; to pull down; to separate the parts of an edifice, the union of which is necessary to constitute the thing; as, to destroy a house or temple; to destroy a fortification. 2. To ruin; to annihilate a thing by demolishing or by burning; as, to destroy a city. 3. To ruin; to bring to naught; to annihilate; as, to destroy a theory or scheme; to destroy a government; to destroy influence. 4. To lay waste; to make desolate. Go up against this land, and destroy it. Isaiah 36:10. 5. To kill; to slay; to extirpate; applied to men or other animals. Ye shall destroy all this people. Numbers 32:15. All the wicked will he destroy Psalms 145:20. 6. To take away; to cause to cease; to put an end to; as, pain destroys happiness. That the body of sin might be destroyed. Romans 6:6. 7. To kill; to eat; to devour; to consume. Birds destroy insects. Hawks destroy chickens. 8. In general, to put an end to; to annihilate a thing or the form in which it exists. An army is destroyed by slaughter, capture or dispersion; a forest, by the ax, or by fire; towns, by fire or inundation, etc. 9. In chimistry, to resolve a body into its parts or elements.