Word.ws English Dictionary

self-destruct

self-destruct verb: to destroy oneself or itself.

Verb

self-destruct (third-person singular simple present self-destructs, present participle self-destructing, simple past and past participle self-destructed)

  1. (figuratively, usually) To destroy oneself or itself.
    • The submarine was primed to self-destruct.
    • The Ferraris pressed the self-destruct button, Lewis Hamilton lost his spot on the podium, and there were champagne moments for Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz Jr.2019 November 17, Sarah Holt, “Verstappen wins Brazilian GP as Ferraris collide AND Gasly and Sainz claim first F1 podiums”, in CNN
    Synonyms:
    autodestruct
  2. To destroy or greatly damage one's position in a game, in one's work or career, in one's financial or social position, etc.
    • If you attack with an energy level of only 30 you are going to self-destruct.
    • Dating the boss is a bad move: if it goes badly, you could self-destruct.

Noun

self-destruct (uncountable)

  1. A feature of a system whereby it destroys itself.
    • They won't take any prisoners! Activate the self-destruct!

Synonyms of self-destruct

Forms of self-destruct

third-person singular presentself-destructs
present participleself-destructing
past participleself-destructed
pastself-destructed

Origin of self-destruct

From self- + destruct.

Words formed from self-destruct

Questions about self-destruct

What does self-destruct mean?
Self-destruct means to destroy oneself or itself.
What part of speech is self-destruct?
Self-destruct can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of self-destruct?
The past tense of self-destruct is self-destructed.

Words near self-destruct in the dictionary

  1. self-deserting
  2. self-deserting avoidant
  3. self-despair
  4. self-destroyer
  5. self-destroyers
  6. self-destruct
  7. self-destructed
  8. self-destructing
  9. self-destruction
  10. self-destructions
  11. self-destructive

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: self-destruct (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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Cite this entry: “self-destruct.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/self-destruct. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.