demolish

English

Etymology

Attested since the 16th century C.E.; from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle French demoliss-, the stem of some conjugated forms of the verb demolir (“to destroy”, “to tear down”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin dēmōlior (“I tear down”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dəˈmɒl.ɪʃ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Verb

1. To destroy.

   They demolished the old mill and put up four townhouses.

2. (transitive, figuratively) To defeat or consume utterly (as a theory, belief or opponent).
   • 1992, Robert Rankin, The Antipope (page 68)

     The Captain folded his brow into a look of intense perplexity. 'You seem exceedingly spry for a man who demolished an entire bottle of brandy and better part of an ounce of shag in a single evening.'
     'And very nice too,' said the tramp. 'Now as to breakfast?'

   • 2011 October 2, Kevin Core, “Fulham 6 - 0 QPR”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     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 Thesaurus:destroy

Related terms

• demolition

Translations

to destroy

• Albanian: dërmoj (sq), prish (sq)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Azerbaijani: sökmək, dağıtmaq (az), uçurmaq
• Bulgarian: събарям (bg) (sǎbarjam), разрушавам (bg) (razrušavam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 拆除 (zh) (chāichú)

• Czech: bourat
• Danish: demolere, rive ned, sløjfe
• Dutch: slopen (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: lammutama
• Finnish: tuhota (fi), hajottaa (fi)
• French: démolir (fr)
• Georgian: დანგრევა (dangreva)
• German: abreißen (de), niederreißen
• Greek:

  Ancient: καθαιρέω (kathairéō)

• Hebrew: הרס (he) (harás)
• Hungarian: bont (hu), ledönt
• Indonesian: hancur lebur (id)
• Italian: demolire (it)
• Japanese: 崩す (kuzusu), 取り壊す (surikowasu)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kumyk: дагъытмакъ (dağıtmaq)
• Kurdish:

  Sorani:

• Latin: dēmōlior, dēruō, disturbō (la)
• Maori: tukituki
• Norman: dêmoli
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: rive (no)

  Nynorsk: rive

• Polish: zburzyć (pl), burzyć (pl), niszczyć (pl)
• Portuguese: demolir (pt)
• Romanian: dărâma (ro)
• Russian: разруша́ть (ru) impf (razrušátʹ), разру́шить (ru) pf (razrúšitʹ), (of old buildings) сноси́ть (ru) impf (snosítʹ), снести́ (ru) pf (snestí)
• Scottish Gaelic: dì-làraich
• Spanish: demoler (es)
• Swedish: riva (sv)
• Tagalog: gibain
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: yıkmak (tr)
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “demolish”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

• modelish