annihilate

Etymology

From Latin annihilō (“I reduce to nothing”), from ad (“to”) + nihil (“nothing”).

verb

  1. To reduce to nothing, to destroy, to eradicate.
    An atom bomb can annihilate a whole city.
  2. (particle physics) To react with antimatter, producing gamma radiation and (for higher-mass reactants, especially composite particles such as protons) lighter particles (such as pions, muons, and neutrinos).
  3. (archaic) To treat as worthless, to vilify.
  4. (transitive) To render null and void; to abrogate.

Attribution / Disclaimer All definitions come directly from Wiktionary using the Wiktextract library. We do not edit or curate the definitions for any words, if you feel the definition listed is incorrect or offensive please suggest modifications directly to the source (wiktionary/annihilate), any changes made to the source will update on this page periodically.