Lexic.us

Definition of Annihilate

1. Verb. Kill in large numbers. "They want to annihilate the prisoners "; "The plague wiped out an entire population"

Definition of Annihilate

1. v. t. To reduce to nothing or nonexistence; to destroy the existence of; to cause to cease to be.

2. a. Annihilated.

Definition of Annihilate

1. Verb. To reduce to nothing, to destroy, to eradicate. ¹

2. Verb. (archaic) To treat as worthless, to vilify. ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Annihilate

1. [v -LATED, -LATING, -LATES]

Medical Definition of Annihilate

1. 1. To reduce to nothing or nonexistence; to destroy the existence of; to cause to cease to be. "It impossible for any body to be utterly annihilated." (Bacon) 2. To destroy the form or peculiar distinctive properties of, so that the specific thing no longer exists; as, to annihilate a forest by cutting down the trees. "To annihilate the army." 3. To destroy or eradicate, as a property or attribute of a thing; to make of no effect; to destroy the force, etc, of; as, to annihilate an argument, law, rights, goodness. Origin: L. Annihilare; ad + nihilum, nihil, nothing, ne hilum (filum) not a thread, nothing at all. Cf. File, a row. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998)

Lexicographical Neighbors of Annihilate

Literary usage of Annihilate

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Publishers Weekly by Publishers' Board of Trade (U.S.), Book Trade Association of Philadelphia, American Book Trade Union, Am. Book Trade Association, R.R. Bowker Company (1907)
"The novel which Mr. Lawson believes will annihilate Wall Street Stock Gambling. He has offered $5000 to anyone who can show a flaw in his theory. ..."

2. The Lancet (1842)
"Are we never to expect to annihilate the poison of syphilis recently applied, by the use of the lunar caustic, ..."

3. The History of Modern Europe: And a View of the Progress of Society from the by William Russell (1837)
"... but in its tendency to abridge, and by degrees to annihilate, the territorial jurisdiction of the nobility, countenanced the institution upon every ..."

4. The Trial of Theodore Parker: For the "misdemeanor" of a Speech in Faneuil by Theodore Parker (1855)
"Aye, it was this which the Stuarts, with their host of attendants, sought to break down and annihilate for ever;14 which Thurlow and Mansfield so formidably ..."

Other Resources: