How to Use self-destruct in a Sentence

self-destruct

verb

• This review will now self-destruct in five, four, three, two….
  — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 5 July 2023
• By not acting, the West would be relying on the group to self-destruct.
  — Robin Simcox, Foreign Affairs, 15 Sep. 2014
• If stocks are low, Moscow could send swarms of self-destructing drones.
  — David L. Stern, Washington Post, 10 Oct. 2023
• Inevitably, his fascists self-destruct.
  — John Lopez, HollywoodReporter, 6 Sep. 2025
• Researchers have developed a new type of plastic that can self-destruct on command.
  — Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 3 May 2026
• Again, this is where a lot of people get trapped, either out of boredom or a compulsion to self-destruct.
  — Olivia Petter, Vogue, 1 Apr. 2025
• If the cell quickly self-destructs, that will prevent the virus from spreading throughout the body.
  — Viviane Callier, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2025
• But sacrificing sleep and well-being will only cause you to self-destruct.
  — Allbusiness, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2023
• This led to the engines shutting down early and the self-destruct system ending the mission.
  — George Dvorsky / Gizmodo, Quartz, 27 Feb. 2024
• It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up.
  — Marcia Dunn, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2025
• When these spores germinate, the bacteria eat away at the plastic, causing it to self-destruct.
  — Michael Dennis, Forbes, 4 Mar. 2025
• Los Alamitos self-destructed in the fourth quarter with penalties on a key drive.
  — Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 11 Nov. 2023
• Halfmann found it a bit unsettling to think that so many cells carry these self-destruct buttons just waiting to be pushed.
  — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 16 Oct. 2025
• When that happens, the craft will be ordered to turn to expose itself to the Sun, causing it to self-destruct.
  — David Szondy, New Atlas, 2 Jan. 2025
• After Keane’s opener in the 18th minute, West Ham did not self-destruct.
  — Roshane Thomas, New York Times, 30 Sep. 2025
• Nevada had already self-destructed by then.
  — Travis Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 31 Aug. 2025
• Engineers activated a self-destruct mechanism while the ship was in mid-air.
  — USA TODAY, 15 Mar. 2024
• Many versions are programmed with a self-destruct timer that can deactivate them after several hours or days.
  — Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 27 Mar. 2026
• Georgia Tech has lost two of its past three games as its defense has self-destructed in November.
  — Steven Johnson, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 23 Nov. 2025
• Some are outfitted with dozens of pounds of explosives to self-destruct near fortifications or bridges.
  — Victor Tangermann, Futurism, 29 Jan. 2026
• The app allows messages to self-destruct from user devices after a set amount of time, erasing both sides of the conversation.
  — CBS News, 18 Dec. 2025
• During the first test in April, the rocket was forced to self-destruct about three minutes after liftoff when the boosters failed to separate.
  — Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 18 Nov. 2023
• What the buyer didn’t know was that Banksy’s portrait was set to self-destruct by being shredded through its own frame as soon as a winning bid was confirmed.
  — Byryan Hogg, Fortune, 19 Sep. 2023
• And finally, there was a bunch of very cool security stuff, including a circuit that self-destructs.
  — Stephen Cass, IEEE Spectrum, 20 Mar. 2024
• Rather than exploring Venus, the vehicle was ordered to self-destruct shortly after liftoff.
  — Allison Morrow, CNN, 14 Feb. 2024
• Texas didn't cash in on that turnover, but Oklahoma continued to self-destruct offensively.
  — Danny Davis, Austin American Statesman, 11 Oct. 2025
• When researchers apply a magnetic field, the nanotubes spin, damaging cancer cells and causing some to self-destruct.
  — IEEE Spectrum, 24 Apr. 2023
• Then around Christmas in 2013, Kinch’s career began to self-destruct.
  — Joshua Kaplan, ProPublica, 4 Jan. 2025
• Then the Knights self-destructed in the face of Sierra Canyon’s pressure defense.
  — Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 27 Jan. 2024
• The explosion was likely the result of a self-destruct command issued by SpaceX ground control.
  — Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 20 Apr. 2023