Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
vb. To destroy oneself.
WordNet
v. do away with oneself or itself; "The machine will self-destruct if you tamper with it" [syn: self-destroy]
Wikipedia
Self-destruct is a mechanism (protocol or device) that can cause an object to destroy itself within a predefined set of circumstances. The self-destruct mechanism is usually the most complete way to destroy the object. For that reason the self-destruct mechanism can be used to destroy objects that are meant to be discarded.
Self-destruct mechanisms are found on devices and systems where malfunction could endanger large numbers of people.
Usage examples of "self-destruct".
The reformulation said that for any record player there would be records that it could not play without self-destructing.
Not a dead system, like the relay station Kyes had discovered, the relay station that had self-destructed on him.
Jugurtha, Pachacutec, and many of the lesser supermen had self-destructed by now, or else were bogged down in bloody civil wars throughout Africa, South America, etc.
Here, a pod rammed itself into a MAC II cannon, self-destructing on impact, while close by two pods down on their backs and cracked open like eggs fought their assailants with blasts of heat and fire sent blowtorching from their foot thrusters.
I wish we had had a chance to at least try a Vulcan mind-meld before Bolis self-destructed.
Beta was notoriously careful with his dits, using fake ID pellets and programming their brains to self-destruct if captured.
The object was an electromagnetic torpedo, scarcely larger than a filterable virus and programmed to self-destruct after it had done its work.
I run a few thousand simulations to verify that the modified me will not accidentally self-destruct or go into a catatonic fugue state, and then, once it is clear that the modification works, I make the changes.
That nickname had gone out of vogue when the USSR self-destructed, and an independent Ukraine had made it clear that ethnic Russians were no longer welcome.
The present was a jade artifact so important to China that her leaders were willing to kick off a trade war and self-destruct their own economy over it.
They had a way to ensure the nanoprobes harmlessly self-destructed by transmitting a simple signal accompanied by the correct code.
Even if you could get Lissan to agree to give you the code, there’s no telling if he’d give you the one to activate the nanoprobes or order them to self-destruct.
It shows you the target of the radio beam, which the microwave dish over your head will be directing at the self-destruct units I installed in the solid-fuel rocket boosters.
This was a beautiful little self-destructed program that stayed beautifully self-destructed, I guarantee you.
But the ship self-destructed before they got there and their detonations were nearly unnoticeable.