Entry Word: annihilate

Function: verb

Meaning: 1 to destroy all traces of <the familyʼs attempts to annihilate the roach population in their apartment had met with little success>

Synonyms blot out, efface, eradicate, expunge, exterminate, extirpate, liquidate, obliterate, root (out), rub out, snuff (out), stamp (out), wipe out

Related Words decimate, demolish, destroy, devastate; dismantle, flatten, mow (down), raze, tear down; ruin, total, waste, wreck; blast, blow up, dash, dynamite, smash; atomize, consume, devour, dissolve, fragment, powder, pulverize, shatter, splinter; doom, finish, kill, terminate, zap; cancel, cut, discard, ditch, eject, excise, expel, jettison, oust, throw out

Near Antonyms conserve, preserve, protect, save; build, construct, create, fabricate, fashion, forge, form, frame, make, manufacture, shape; fix, mend, patch, rebuild, recondition, reconstruct, renew, renovate, repair, restore, revamp

2 to bring to a complete end the physical soundness, existence, or usefulness of <the tornado simply annihilated the familyʼs home> — see destroy 1