Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Causing or wreaking destruction; ruinous.
- adjective Designed or tending to disprove or discredit.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Causing destruction; having a tendency to destroy or the quality of destroying; ruinous; mischievous; pernicious; hurtful: with of or to before an object: as, a destructive fire; a destructive disposition; intemperance is destructive of health; evil examples are destructive to the morals of youth.
- In logic, refuting; disproving: as, a destructive dilemma.
- noun One who or that which destroys; one who favors the destruction of anything for some ulterior purpose, as progress or public convenience; an overthrower of existing institutions, customs, or the like.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Causing destruction; tending to bring about ruin, death, or devastation; ruinous; fatal; productive of serious evil; mischievous; pernicious; -- often with
of orto - adjective See
Distillation . - adjective (Logic) a process of reasoning which involves the denial of the first of a series of dependent propositions as a consequence of the denial of the last; a species of
reductio ad absurdum . - noun One who destroys; a radical reformer; a destructionist.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Causing
destruction ;damaging . - adjective Causing
break down ordisassembly .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective causing destruction or much damage
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word destructive.
Examples
-
Competition is a word destructive to successful Yoga practice.
American Yoga Association Beginner’s Manual Fully Revised and Updated Alice Christensen 2010
-
Competition is a word destructive to successful Yoga practice.
American Yoga Association Beginner’s Manual Fully Revised and Updated Alice Christensen 2010
-
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said any slackness in the global response to the floods may give extremists an opportunity to promote what he described as their destructive agenda.
-
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said any slackness in the global response to the floods may give extremists an opportunity to promote what he described as their destructive agenda.
-
Saturday to withstand what it called the destructive effects of affirmative action, the Boerevolk Werkersunie disclosed on
-
Everybody has been pleased and amused, except the two clergymen who are here, and who have begun a course of sermons against what they call a destructive torrent of worldly gaiety.
The Magnificent Montez From Courtesan to Convert Horace Wyndham
-
No wonder he hates what he calls destructive criticism, sometimes called by free spirits the elimination of buncombe.
Public Opinion Walter Lippmann 1931
-
"Why I Still Remain in the Provinces" was an anti-urban philippic, warning that cities exposed thinkers to what he called "destructive error".
-
Gingrich blasted what he called the "destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media" after the matter came up in the debate.
-
He said they were untrue, and Gingrich blasted what he called the "destructive, vicious, negative nature of much of the news media."
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.