annihilate
verb /əˈnaɪəleɪt/
/əˈnaɪəleɪt/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they annihilate | /əˈnaɪəleɪt/ /əˈnaɪəleɪt/ |
| he / she / it annihilates | /əˈnaɪəleɪts/ /əˈnaɪəleɪts/ |
| past simple annihilated | /əˈnaɪəleɪtɪd/ /əˈnaɪəleɪtɪd/ |
| past participle annihilated | /əˈnaɪəleɪtɪd/ /əˈnaɪəleɪtɪd/ |
| -ing form annihilating | /əˈnaɪəleɪtɪŋ/ /əˈnaɪəleɪtɪŋ/ |
- annihilate somebody/something/yourself to destroy somebody/something/yourself completely
- The human race has enough weapons to annihilate itself.
- annihilate somebody/something to defeat somebody/something completely
- She annihilated her opponent, who failed to win a single game.
Word Originlate Middle English (originally as an adjective meaning ‘destroyed, annulled’): from late Latin annihilatus ‘reduced to nothing’, from the verb annihilare, from ad- ‘to’ + nihil ‘nothing’. The sense ‘destroy utterly’ dates from the mid 16th cent.