DESTROY, v.t. [L. 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. Is. 36.5. To kill; to slay; to extirpate; applied to men or other animals.Ye shall destroy all this people. Num. 32.All the wicked will he destroy. Ps. 145.6. To take away; to cause to cease; to put an end to; as, pain destroys happiness.That the body of sin might be destroyed. Rom 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, &c.9. In chimistry, to resolve a body into its parts or elements.
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