annihilate

UK/əˈnaɪ.ə.leɪt/

verbC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #9,496 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: annihilated, annihilating, annihilates

To annihilate is to destroy completely, or to defeat overwhelmingly. Annihilate the enemy, annihilated in the final, annihilate the argument.

The sporting sense is much the commoner and is a cheerful exaggeration for a heavy defeat. In physics it is exact: a particle and its antiparticle annihilate, and their mass becomes energy entirely, with nothing left of either.

Definitions of annihilate

1verbannihilateTo destroy completely, or to defeat overwhelmingly.C1
“The bombing raids annihilated the old town centre in a single night.”

annihilate is a destroying.

Where it comes from

Latin annihilare means to reduce to nothing — ad, to, plus nihil, nothing.

Latin
annihilātus
English, today
annihilate

Built from

annihilō · Latin — to reduce to nothing
ad · Latin — to
nihil · Latin — nothing

Latin annihilātus, perfect passive participle of annihilō (“to reduce to nothing”) (see -ate), from ad (“to”) + nihil (“nothing”) + -ō. See also an-.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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