demolish

English

Etymology

Attested since the 16th Century CE; from Middle French demoliss-, the stem of some conjugated forms of the verb demolir (“to destroy”, “to tear down”), from Latin demolior (“to tear down”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /dəˈmɒl.ɪʃ/, X-SAMPA: /d@"mQl.IS/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

demolish (third-person singular simple present demolishes, present participle demolishing, simple past and past participle demolished)

1. To destroy; to destruct

   They demolished the old house and put up four townhouses.

2. (transitive) To utterly defeat
   • 2011 October 2, Kevin Core, “Fulham 6 - 0 QPR”, BBC Sport:

     Andrew Johnson scored a hat-trick as Fulham demolished London rivals Queens Park Rangers to win their Premier League fixture of the season.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:destroy

Translations

to destroy

• Albanian: dërmoj (sq), prish (sq)
• Bulgarian: събарям (bg) (sǎbarjam), разрушавам (bg) (razrušavam)
• Czech: bourat (cs)
• Dutch: slopen (nl)
• Estonian: lammutama (et)
• Finnish: tuhota (fi), hajottaa (fi)
• French: démolir (fr)
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: abreißen (de), niederreißen (de)
• Hebrew: הרס (he) (harás)
• Hungarian: bont (hu), ledönt
• Indonesian: hancur lebur (id)

• Italian: demolire (it)
• Jèrriais: dêmoli
• Kurdish:

  Sorani: ڕوخاندن (ku) (RookhAndin)

• Latin: dēmōlior (la)
• Maori: tukituki (mi)
• Romanian: dărâma (ro)
• Russian: разрушать (ru) (razrušát’) impf., разрушить (ru) (razrúšit’) pf., (of old buildings) сносить (ru) (snosít’) impf., снести (ru) (snestí) pf.
• Scottish Gaelic: di-làraich (gd)
• Spanish: demoler (es)
• Turkish: yikmak (tr)

References

• “demolish” in Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).