Hypertext Webster Gateway: "Annihilate"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Annihilate \An*ni"hi*late\ (an*n[imac]"h[i^]*l[asl]t), a.
Annihilated. [Archaic] --Swift.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Annihilate \An*ni"hi*late\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Annihilated};
p. pr. & vb. n. {Annihilating}.] [L. annihilare; ad +
nihilum, nihil, nothing, ne hilum (filum) not a thread,
nothing at all. Cf. {File}, a row.]
1. To reduce to nothing or nonexistence; to destroy the
existence of; to cause to cease to be.
It impossible for any body to be utterly
annihilated. --Bacon.
2. To destroy the form or peculiar distinctive properties of,
so that the specific thing no longer exists; as, to
annihilate a forest by cutting down the trees. ``To
annihilate the army.'' --Macaulay.
3. To destroy or eradicate, as a property or attribute of a
thing; to make of no effect; to destroy the force, etc.,
of; as, to annihilate an argument, law, rights, goodness.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
annihilate
v : kill in large numbers; "the plague wiped out an entire
population" [syn: {eliminate}, {extinguish}, {eradicate},
{wipe out}, {decimate}, {carry off}]
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