annihilate

/əˌnaɪəˈleɪt/

/əˈnaɪəleɪt/

Other forms: annihilated; annihilating; annihilates

Killing ends when the thing you are killing (your sworn enemy, all hope, a pesky mosquito) is dead. Annihilate goes farther—when you annihilate something, you wipe all trace of it from the earth.

You kill a person, but you annihilate a tribe, a town, or even a species. It's nice to think that the human race made it all the way up until the 16th century before annihilate came to mean what it does now. Might this have something to do with the increasing use of gunpowder around this time?

Definitions of annihilate

1. verb

   kill in large numbers
   synonyms: carry off, decimate, eliminate, eradicate, extinguish, wipe out

   decimate

   kill one in every ten, as of mutineers in Roman armies

   type of:

   kill

   cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly
2. verb

   do away with completely, without leaving a trace
   synonyms: obliterate

   type of:

   do away with, eliminate, extinguish, get rid of

   terminate, end, or take out
3. verb

   beat thoroughly and conclusively in a competition or fight
   synonyms: bat, clobber, cream, drub, lick, thrash

   flail, lam, thrash, thresh

   give a thrashing to; beat hard

   type of:

   beat, beat out, crush, shell, trounce, vanquish

   come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
4. verb

   declare invalid
   synonyms: annul, avoid, invalidate, nullify, quash, void

   types:

   break

   invalidate by judicial action

   stet

   printing: cancel, as of a correction or deletion

   type of:

   cancel, strike down

   declare null and void; make ineffective