demolish (verb)

  • 1demolish — ► VERB 1) pull or knock down (a building). 2) comprehensively refute or defeat. 3) humorous eat up (food) quickly. ORIGIN Latin demoliri, from moliri construct …

    English terms dictionary

  • 2demolish — verb Demolish is used with these nouns as the object: ↑argument, ↑building, ↑garage, ↑house, ↑myth, ↑slum, ↑wall …

    Collocations dictionary

  • 3demolish — verb /dəˈmɒl.ɪʃ/ To destroy; to destruct They demolished the old house and put up four townhouses …

    Wiktionary

  • 4demolish — verb (T) 1 to completely destroy a building, especially so that the land it is on can be used for something else: Several houses were demolished to make way for the new road. 2 to prove that an idea or opinion is completely wrong: He demolished… …

    Longman dictionary of contemporary English

  • 5demolish — verb 1) they demolished the building Syn: knock down, pull down, tear down, bring down, destroy, flatten, raze (to the ground), level, bulldoze, topple; blow up; dismantle, disassemble See note at destroy …

    Thesaurus of popular words

  • 6demolish — verb 1) they demolished a block of flats Syn: knock down, pull down, tear down, destroy, flatten, raze to the ground, dismantle, level, bulldoze, blow up 2) he demolished her credibility Syn …

    Synonyms and antonyms dictionary

  • 7demolish — [[t]dɪmɒ̱lɪʃ[/t]] demolishes, demolishing, demolished 1) VERB To demolish something such as a building means to destroy it completely. [V n] A storm moved directly over the island, demolishing buildings and flooding streets... [V n] The building… …

    English dictionary

  • 8demolish — [16] To demolish something is etymologically to ‘deconstruct’ it. The word comes from demoliss , the stem of Old French demolir, which in turn came from Latin dēmōlīrī ‘throw down, demolish’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē ,… …

    The Hutchinson dictionary of word origins

  • 9demolish */ — UK [dɪˈmɒlɪʃ] / US [dɪˈmɑlɪʃ] verb [transitive] Word forms demolish : present tense I/you/we/they demolish he/she/it demolishes present participle demolishing past tense demolished past participle demolished 1) a) to deliberately destroy a… …

    English dictionary

  • 10demolish — [16] To demolish something is etymologically to ‘deconstruct’ it. The word comes from demoliss , the stem of Old French demolir, which in turn came from Latin dēmōlīrī ‘throw down, demolish’. This was a compound verb formed from the prefix dē ,… …

    Word origins