demolish

1 to destroy (as a building) completely by knocking down or breaking to pieces developers demolished the old warehouse to make room for the new shopping mall Synonyms level, pull down, raze, tear down, unbuild Related Words blow up, dynamite; abolish, annihilate, crack up, crush, dash, decimate, destroy, devastate, devour, dissolve, do in, eradicate, extirpate, finish, flatten, obliterate, overturn, pulverize, ravage, ruin, scourge, smash, total, unmake, waste, wipe out, wreck Near Antonyms build, construct, erect, put up, raise; rebuild, renew, renovate, restore; create, fabricate, fashion, forge, form, make, manufacture, shape

2 to bring to a complete end the physical soundness, existence, or usefulness of most of the buildings in the town had been demolished in the bombing raid Synonyms annihilate, cream, decimate, destroy, desolate, devastate, do in, extinguish, nuke, pull down, pulverize, raze, rub out, ruin, shatter, smash, tear down, total, vaporize, waste, wrack, wreckRelated Words beat, best, clobber, conquer, crush, defeat, drub, lick, master, overbear, overcome, overmatch, prevail (over), rout, scotch, skunk, subdue, surmount, thrash, trim, triumph (over), trounce, wallop, whip, win (against); blast, blow up, break, cripple, damage, deface, deteriorate, disfigure, disintegrate, dissolve, dynamite, harm, impair, injure, mangle, mar, mutilate, spoil, vitiate; erode, scour, sweep (away), wash out, wear (away); dilapidate, disassemble, dismantle, gut, take down, unbuild, undo, unmake; blot out, efface, eradicate, expunge, exterminate, extirpate, liquidate, obliterate, remove, root (out), snuff (out), stamp (out), wipe out; despoil, havoc, loot, pillage, plunder, ravage, sack, trample, trash, vandalize; assassinate, butcher, cut down, dispatch, execute, fell, kill, kill off, massacre, mow (down), murder, slaughter, slay, take out, zapNear Antonyms doctor, fix, mend, patch, recondition, repair, revamp; create, invent; assemble, fabricate, fashion, forge, form, frame, make, manufacture, mold, produce, shape; bring about, constitute, establish, father, found, institute, organize; conserve, preserve, protect, save; rebuild, reconstruct, remodel, renovate, restoreAntonyms build, construct, erect, put up, raise, rear, set up

3 to cause to break open or into pieces by or as if by an explosive terrorists used a powerful pipe bomb to demolish the concrete wall around the compound Synonyms blow, blow up, burst, blast, explode, pop, shatter, smashRelated Words dynamite; annihilate, decimate, destroy; ruin, wreck; detonate, discharge; fragment, splinterNear Antonyms collapse, implode