demolish

1. 1.

   destroy completely

   “the wrecking ball demolished the building”

   Synonymspulverizepulverise

   Broaderdestroy
2. 2.

   ruin or destroy

   “his book demolishes an old myth”

   “demolished my reputation”

   “the professor demolished the student's argument”

   Broaderdestroy
3. 3.

   eat up completely, as with great appetite

   “Some people can down a pound of meat in the course of one meal”

   “The teenagers demolished four pizzas among them”

   Synonymsdevourdownconsumego through

   Broadereat up
4. 4.

   defeat soundly and humiliatingly

   “The home team demolished the visitors”

   Synonymsdestroy

   Broaderget the better of

   Narrowersmashswallowcut to ribbons

Other forms of demolish

past tense

demolished·

present participle

demolishing·

third person

demolishes·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about demolish

What does demolish mean?

demolish means "destroy completely". That is the primary sense; the word has 4 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in demolish?

demolish has 3 syllables: de-mo-lish. The stress falls on "mo". In IPA it is /dɪˈmɑlɪʃ/.

What is another word for demolish?

Close synonyms include pulverize, pulverise, devour, down, consume. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is demolish a common word?

demolish is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.