demolish
/dɪˈmɒl.ɪʃ/
demolish verb: to destroy (buildings, etc.), especially in a planned or intentional fashion.
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Verb
demolish (third-person singular simple present demolishes, present participle demolishing, simple past and past participle demolished)
- To destroy (buildings, etc.), especially in a planned or intentional fashion.
- They demolished the old mill and put up four townhouses.
- The station did not have a long life, as it was demolished between 1884 and 1888 to make room for a new and larger station which forms part of the present Liverpool Exchange Station.1957 August, “Notes and News: Tithebarn Street Station, Liverpool”, in Railway Magazine, page 590
- To defeat, refute, discredit, or consume utterly (as a theory, belief or opponent).
- 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?'1992, Robert Rankin, The Antipope, page 68 - Andrew Johnson scored a hat-trick as Fulham demolished London rivals Queens Park Rangers to win their Premier League fixture of the season.2011 October 2, Kevin Core, “Fulham 6 - 0 QPR”, in BBC Sport
- 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.'
- To devour; to eat up
- “Thanks, Raj.” Frank was too hungry to worry about Raj’s gob gloop on the bar, and happily demolished it in seconds.2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN
demolish meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
demolish in Tamil
- அழி, சிதை, தகர்
demolish in Urdu
- برباد کرنا, ڈھانا, خاک میں ملانا, مسمار کرنا, پٹرا کر دینا
demolish in Bengali
- ধ্বংস করা
demolish in Telugu
- కూల్చివేయడానికి
More languagesFewer languages
- demolish in Malayalam
- ഇടിച്ചു നിരത്തുക, നശിപ്പിക്കുക, നിലംപരിശാക്കുക
- demolish in Kannada
- ಉರುಳಿಸು, ನಾಶಮಾಡು, ಧ್ವಂಸ ಮಾಡು, ಭೂಗತ ಮಾಡು
- demolish in Tagalog
- gibain
- demolish in Arabic
- هَدَمَ hadama
- demolish in Indonesian
- hancur lebur
- demolish in Vietnamese
- phá hủy
Examples of demolish in a sentence
- The force of the explosion demolished one pair of piers and two spans of the bridge crashed down into the river on top of the barges.1961 January, “Talking of Trains: The Severn Bridge disaster”, in Trains Illustrated, page 5:
- At Hawick, nothing remains of the station, and the viaduct over the River Teviot is one of a number of bridges that were demolished or removed following closure.2020 May 6, Graeme Pickering, “Borders Railway: time for the next step”, in Rail, page 53:
- In a role reversal, he is drinking Smirnoff Ice while she steadily demolishes a six-pack of lager!2022 November 30, Paul Bigland, “Destination Oban: a Sunday in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 971, page 74:
Forms of demolish
| third-person singular present | demolishes |
|---|---|
| present participle | demolishing |
| past participle | demolished |
| past | demolished |
Origin of demolish
Attested since the 16th century; from Middle French demoliss-, the stem of some conjugated forms of the verb demolir (“to destroy”, “to tear down”), from Latin dēmōlior (“to tear down”). Displaced native Old English tōweorpan (literally “to throw apart”).
Words formed from demolish
Questions about demolish
- What does demolish mean?
- Demolish means to destroy (buildings, etc.), especially in a planned or intentional fashion.
- What is demolish in Tamil?
- Demolish in Tamil is அழி, சிதை, தகர். See Demolish meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use demolish in a sentence?
- The force of the explosion demolished one pair of piers and two spans of the bridge crashed down into the river on top of the barges.
- What part of speech is demolish?
- Demolish is a verb.
- How do you pronounce demolish?
- Demolish is pronounced /dɪˈmɒl.ɪʃ/.
- What is the past tense of demolish?
- The past tense of demolish is demolished.
Words near demolish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: demolish (page history and authors); demolish (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); demolish (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); demolish (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); demolish (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); demolish (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); demolish (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-demolish.ogg.
Cite this entry: “demolish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/demolish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.