verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an earthquake destroys/damages sth
▪ The earthquake completely destroyed all the buildings on the island.
an explosion destroys sth
▪ Seven people died when the explosion destroyed the bus.
break/destroy a bond
▪ He didn’t want to do anything to break the bond between them.
damage/destroy a habitat
▪ Widening the road will uproot trees and damage wildlife habitat.
demolish/destroy a building (=pull it down)
▪ Permission is needed to demolish listed buildings.
destroy credibility
▪ The scandal nearly destroyed the FBI's credibility.
destroy morale
▪ The possibility of big job cuts was destroying morale.
destroy sb’s faith in sb/sth
▪ Terry’s lies had destroyed Liz’s faith in men.
destroy the economy
▪ The floods last year destroyed the region’s economy.
destroy the environment
▪ We need to find ways of producing energy without destroying the environment.
destroy/ruin sb’s reputation
▪ The accusation ruined her reputation and cost her the election.
destroy/shatter confidence in sb/sth
▪ A further crisis has destroyed public confidence in the bank.
destroy/shatter sb’s confidence
▪ When she failed her degree, it shattered her confidence.
destroy/spoil a friendship
▪ Their friendship was spoilt after a fierce argument.
sth destroys/damages a crop
▪ When disease destroyed the crop, famine followed.
sth is damaged/destroyed by fire
▪ The school was badly damaged by fire.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
almost
▪ Thousands of Nuba were forced to flee as government soldiers scaled the mountains, destroying almost 2,500 homes and burning food stores.
▪ Even with his body almost destroyed he had to continue until his life-functions were terminated or his mission was carried out.
▪ The revelation almost destroyed the O'Dell family.
▪ One of its own ancestors, the pre-war, down-market Lagonda Rapier, almost destroyed its parent company.
▪ It was a marriage and a lifestyle that almost destroyed him.
completely
▪ In 1908, an earthquake almost completely destroyed Messina, Sicily.
▪ If the enemy ignites war recklessly, we shall resolutely answer it with war and completely destroy the aggressors.
▪ The tail unit had been almost completely destroyed.
▪ The result is a devastating detonation that completely destroys the rocket.
▪ Antony has turned the tables completely and has now completely destroyed all hopes of the conspirators ever establishing themselves in Rome.
▪ And in 60 percent of mice in which human tumors were implanted, the virus completely destroyed the tumors.
▪ Had his desire been completely destroyed by hatred?
▪ San Francisco was shaken by a severe earthquake which, together with the fire that followed, almost completely destroyed the city.
nearly
▪ Julius had nearly destroyed her once.
▪ Thus, the New Jersey paradox: Conservatives saved her, but they nearly destroyed her.
▪ It would cap a courageous return by a player whose career was nearly destroyed by injury.
▪ Jay Burns has undergone 18 skin grafts since the horrible accident three years ago, an accident that nearly destroyed his life.
▪ She had come to Hochhauser in hope and desperation and Gesner had nearly destroyed her.
▪ After fierce fighting, C Troop was nearly destroyed.
▪ Nothing remarkable bout that, except that Orphans was nearly destroyed, when Film Four accidentally burnt most of it.
▪ Economic chaos of the first period of freedom nearly destroyed education and social services that had been taken for granted.
totally
▪ If dated by conventional radiocarbon, it would have been totally destroyed during measurement.
▪ The tunnels were never totally destroyed, nor were they ever emptied.
▪ Chokoria Sunderban, an 18,000-hectare mangrove forest in Cox's Bazar, has been totally destroyed.
▪ Most of the houses in the village itself were totally destroyed, and 3,000 people were killed.
▪ The Deaf Institute in Bath was totally destroyed, and all records were lost.
▪ It's a bit of a mess but it's not totally destroyed.
▪ This building was totally destroyed, and the deaf of Weymouth were without a club for some months.
■ NOUN
building
▪ The fireball destroyed a prefabricated office building before setting a four-storey office block ablaze.
▪ The Dec. 11 fire that destroyed three major buildings in the mill began in the flock division, investigators said.
▪ It also spread to neighbouring Variety Cars, destroying a portable office building.
▪ Even as late as 1956 a considerable earthquake destroyed half the buildings on the west coast of the island.
city
▪ They have destroyed the city on us and become rich on the pickings.
▪ San Francisco was shaken by a severe earthquake which, together with the fire that followed, almost completely destroyed the city.
▪ What is the point of having a bomb that could instantly destroy the city of Glasgow?
enemy
▪ It had the job of destroying the enemy headquarters.
▪ His conclusion also was that our next operation must be an all-out effort to destroy the enemy carriers.
▪ It is they who carry out the traditional infantry role of closing with and destroying the enemy.
▪ Eyeless at Gaza, Samson struggled to regain the power to pull down the pillars that destroyed him and his enemies together.
▪ You flew to destroy the enemy.
▪ Always known as Wesley's Cottage it was destroyed by enemy action in May 1941.
▪ Another project that the ministry has suddenly accelerated after two years of inaction is a new missile designed to destroy enemy radars.
evidence
▪ But as Ken Goodwin reports, his scheme to destroy the evidence didn't go according to plan.
▪ The destroyed evidence was to be used in a separate case that occurred in San Francisco on July 11, 1984.
▪ Gore then devised a plan to burn down the house, destroying any forensic evidence he might have left behind.
▪ But will their loyalty and love lead them to perjury and destroying evidence that might incriminate him?
▪ A stratagem I learnt early in my life was to hoard every emblem of success and destroy all evidence of failure.
▪ He is due to face trial on charges relating to turtle trading and destroying the evidence.
▪ The man's friend denies helping him destroy evidence.
▪ Steven Paterson denies helping Bailey try to destroy evidence linking him to the crime and the trial is continuing.
fire
▪ The Dec. 11 fire that destroyed three major buildings in the mill began in the flock division, investigators said.
▪ Demonstrations like this, graphically show how quickly fire can spread, destroying a room in just 4 minutes.
▪ In 1698, a fire destroyed much of the palace and the royal residence shifted to St James's.
▪ The cabin then burst into fire, destroying the entire aircraft.
▪ A fire destroyed some parts of the western end, and then with more rebuilding it was converted into four dwellings.
▪ After an arson fire destroyed one of the metal houses, the fire inspector withdrew his support for the project.
forest
▪ Acid rain poisons fish, destroys forests, and corrodes buildings.
▪ Two were destroyed in forest fire work while the other three are firmly entrenched in museums.
▪ Since then some 4 million hectares have been cut down and millions more have been destroyed by accidental forest fires.
▪ But fears abound that the dams will actually increase floods or at least their effects, by destroying the protective surrounding forests.
▪ This is one of the reasons we destroy the rain forests at our peril.
▪ Now unscrupulous logging companies assisted by corrupt officials are destroying forests at the rate of 50 million acres a year.
▪ Over the winter of 1997 / 98 huge fires had destroyed large tracts of forest in Borneo.
▪ The institute will also look at ways of harvesting timber without destroying the forests.
home
▪ The Friday night slide destroyed three homes.
▪ Thousands of Nuba were forced to flee as government soldiers scaled the mountains, destroying almost 2,500 homes and burning food stores.
▪ They had hit her house, destroyed her home - hers and Gerry's.
▪ The plaintiff was seriously and her husband fatally injured by an explosion of gas which also destroyed their home.
▪ Fire destroys stately home Simon Trump A CENTURIES-old stately home packed with priceless antiques was wiped out by fire yesterday.
▪ The advent of the spinning jenny did not at first destroy home employment in spinning.
hope
▪ Antony has turned the tables completely and has now completely destroyed all hopes of the conspirators ever establishing themselves in Rome.
▪ In a few days, a few hours, war destroyed their hopes.
▪ What if the fortune-teller was destroying her hope and joy with that strange, harsh voice.
▪ Perhaps the ending is meant as a sad acknowledgment that people often destroy their own brightest hopes.
▪ An opening round of 76 had destroyed his hopes of improving on his second place behind Ian Woosnam the previous year.
▪ Second, we have seen off the threat of a world trade war which would have destroyed any hope of economic recovery.
▪ It destroys hope for a better life.
▪ A power vacuum would probably destroy his hopes for a smooth transition of authority.
house
▪ Floods destroyed 148 houses and swamped nearly 3,000 acres of crop land in the Bacau region.
▪ It destroyed several tens of houses.
▪ Immediately these men destroyed the houses that had been built on the land.
▪ Had the makers of Junior Scientist included chemicals so deadly they might destroy a house?
▪ You can no longer, for the sake of building a road, destroy houses without providing alternative accommodation.
▪ The rocket destroyed the house and blew the cat's fur off.
▪ The mob destroyed his house, library, laboratory and notes, but they took advantage of his well-stocked wine cellar.
▪ As it was, when we eventually returned, we found everything had been destroyed - houses, crops, animals.
life
▪ This baby was not six months old yet ... he was going to destroy their family life.
▪ They express their anger by destroying their own lives and thereby hurting others, while seeming to be wide-eyed and innocent.
▪ These algae are very dangerous in large quantities and could eventually destroy all other life in the aquarium if not controlled.
▪ It can destroy the health and lives of young people in particular.
▪ But when time is destroying the present lives of your own children I do not believe that anyone should wait.
▪ It is then that the Bad ` Un seeks to destroy all potential for life.
▪ I would not stand by and watch the two of them destroy my life.
system
▪ Regulation has been introduced to prevent the logic of competition from destroying the system.
▪ But middle-class flight destroys a school system because when middle-class parents flee, so does the power base.
▪ One of its latest pledges is to destroy our A-level system.
▪ By the late 1970s it became obvious that the petro-dollar surplus was not going to destroy the international monetary system.
▪ Social history Social historians tend to support the view that industrialisation destroyed the apprenticeship system.
▪ The brewers have decided to destroy the traditional tenancy system.
■ VERB
threaten
▪ She holds the adventurers at bay by holding the scroll over a candle flame and threatening to destroy it.
▪ But occasionally a word, a definition an attitude looms like a weapon between us, threatening to destroy the conversation.
▪ The broken tanker has leaked thousands of tonnes of crude oil and threatens to destroy the wildlife paradise of the Shetlands.
▪ Getting ashore is tricky, with the sea threatening to destroy the boats on the boulders at the edge.
▪ This production charts her struggle with, and ultimately victory over, the circumstances which threaten to destroy her.
▪ Dalek firepower threatens to destroy the expeditionary force until the attackers hit on the idea of disabling the city's power generators.
try
▪ A machine like this employing a beam of radiation was used to try to destroy the tumours.
▪ Thereafter the pols rejected Jack as unworthy, and tried to destroy him.
▪ They were slowly trying to destroy him.
▪ The whale uses the front of his head as a weapon by battering into the object it is trying to destroy.
▪ Another investigation you can try is to destroy part of a web and then watch the spider repair it.
▪ He has constantly tried to destroy the regulatory agencies.
▪ I stood there trying to destroy my right hand.
▪ Hermaphrodites are in a state of constant battle against rebellious organelle genes trying to destroy their male parts.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ A vast amount of the Amazonian rainforest is being destroyed every day.
▪ An accident destroyed her ballet career.
▪ Chandler worried that the scandal would destroy his chances for a respectable career.
▪ Even close relationships can be destroyed by alcoholism.
▪ Few things destroy trust more than telling a friend's secrets.
▪ Her feelings of self-doubt had destroyed every relationship that she had ever had.
▪ I don't want this to destroy our friendship.
▪ In Brazil the rainforests are gradually being destroyed.
▪ Milk is heat treated for a few seconds to destroy bacteria.
▪ Pollution may destroy the 17th century shrine.
▪ The Animal Disease Authority decided to destroy the cattle that were infected with the disease.
▪ The court ordered the owner of the rottweilers to have the dogs destroyed.
▪ The earthquake destroyed much of the city.
▪ The factory was almost completely destroyed by fire.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ All over the earth men grew so wicked that finally Zeus determined to destroy them.
▪ Chemists tell us the oxygen would have destroyed them.
▪ Drawers and cupboards had been completely emptied, and everything had been broken, ripped and destroyed.
▪ High interest rates and falling orders had destroyed two generations of hard work, she said.
▪ Others said it would destroy the moral fabric of the state.
▪ Roadways that run through city centres, food refrigerators that destroyed the ecosystem of their homeworld.
▪ This would have destroyed him and saved the world from another war.
▪ Your educated boys went at it a little more privately and gracefully, but sometimes destroyed more people in the long run.