annihilate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb kill in large numbers
    carry off; decimate; eliminate; wipe out; extinguish; eradicate.
    • the plague wiped out an entire population

WordNet

An*ni"hi*late transitive verb
Etymology
L. annihilare; ad + nihilum, nihil, nothing, ne hilum (filum) not a thread, nothing at all. Cf. File, a row.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Annihilated; present participle & verbal noun Annihilating
Definitions
  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.
An*ni"hi*late adjective
Definitions
  1. Anhilated. Archaic Swift.

Webster 1913