DESTROYING Synonyms: 204 Similar and Opposite Words

destroying

verb

present participle of destroy

as in ruining

to bring to a complete end the physical soundness, existence, or usefulness of they practically destroyed the safe in order to get at the money inside their poor scores on the final exam destroyed any chance they might have had to pass the course

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in ravaging

to bring destruction to (something) through violent action wildfires destroyed thousands of acres in forests across the state

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as in killing

to deprive of life regrettably, the veterinarian was forced to destroy the injured horse

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of destroying The Pentagon has generally lumped it into the first objective of destroying Iran’s missile capability. —

ABC News, 28 Mar. 2026 But there may be an answer, or at least a compromise that will satisfy those unhappy with the idea of destroying a usable building. —

Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 27 Mar. 2026 What about destroying the stockpile by blowing up the canisters? —

Sheena Samu, CBS News, 27 Mar. 2026 This soft-kill approach allows operators to neutralize threats without destroying them. —

Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 26 Mar. 2026 Forces on Kharg would immediately be within range of sustained Iranian fire; Iran could respond by attacking energy infrastructure and desalination plants across the Persian Gulf or destroying the island’s oil facilities to deny them to the Americans. —

Thomas Wright, The Atlantic, 26 Mar. 2026 The surge in energy prices has raised fears of higher spending — funded by growth-destroying tax increases or more borrowing — to support households. —

Ian King, CNBC, 25 Mar. 2026 In late January, following the killing of Pretti, a court granted the state a temporary restraining order barring federal investigators ⁠from destroying evidence in the investigation. —

Christian Martinez, USA Today, 25 Mar. 2026 Trump, however, failed to address growing concerns that AI is proving incredibly damaging, with professors saying that AI is destroying students’ ability to think, undermining children’s social and intellectual development, while teaching them potentially dangerous lessons. —

Victor Tangermann, Futurism, 25 Mar. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for destroying

Verb

Accused of ruining baseball with their big-spending ways the past two years, the noise has only gotten louder as a labor showdown looms.

— Bill Plunkett, Oc Register, 29 Mar. 2026
To figure out its mechanism, Julius’s team had to somehow extract it from cells without ruining the very properties the researchers were trying to understand.

— Jacek Krywko, Scientific American, 25 Mar. 2026