Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To destroy itself or oneself; self-destruct.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive To
destroy itself by design (as of a mechanical system). - noun A feature of a system whereby it
destroys itself.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word autodestruct.
Examples
-
It seems like the computer was always announcing how much time was left until the Starship Enterprise would go into "autodestruct."
Scott Bittle and Jean Johnson: Fiscal Follies: Facing the Budget Auto-Destruct Countdown, Without an Escape Pod Scott Bittle 2011
-
Why not tell Nassir to set his ships autodestruct sequence and save your boys the trip?
Reap the Whirlwind David Mack 2007
-
Another scaffold protein might have binding sites for proteins that tell a cell to kill itself perhaps sent by immune cells that “perceive” the doomed cell has been invaded by a virus as well as proteins that begin the autodestruct sequence.
The Edge of Evolution Michael J. Behe 2007
-
Why not tell Nassir to set his ships autodestruct sequence and save your boys the trip?
Reap the Whirlwind David Mack 2007
-
Another scaffold protein might have binding sites for proteins that tell a cell to kill itself perhaps sent by immune cells that “perceive” the doomed cell has been invaded by a virus as well as proteins that begin the autodestruct sequence.
The Edge of Evolution Michael J. Behe 2007
-
Why not tell Nassir to set his ships autodestruct sequence and save your boys the trip?
Reap the Whirlwind David Mack 2007
-
Why not tell Nassir to set his ships autodestruct sequence and save your boys the trip?
Reap the Whirlwind David Mack 2007
-
Why not tell Nassir to set his ships autodestruct sequence and save your boys the trip?
Reap the Whirlwind David Mack 2007
-
Why not tell Nassir to set his ships autodestruct sequence and save your boys the trip?
Reap the Whirlwind David Mack 2007
-
Why not tell Nassir to set his ships autodestruct sequence and save your boys the trip?
Reap the Whirlwind David Mack 2007
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.