destructive
adjCA, US, UK /dɪˈstɹʌktɪv/ · IE /dɪˈstɹʊktɪv/
Etymology From Middle English destructyve, from Middle French destructif, from Latin dēstrūctīvus, from past participle of dēstruere (“to tear down, destroy”) + -īvus.
1
Causing destruction; damaging.
- The pastures are filled with gay political drop-outs, persons of reasonable intent who found the scene personally destructive.1980 August 30, David Rothenberg, “A New York State of Confusion”, in Gay Community News, volume 8, number 6, page 5:
- After rescuing his estranged daughter in the last film, Live Free Or Die Hard, Willis heads to Russia to rescue his estranged son (Jai Courtney), a CIA agent on a mission to protect a whistleblower (Sebastian Koch) from a corrupt government official (Sergei Kolesnikov) with no shortage of destructive resources at his disposal.2013 February 14, Scott Tobias, “Film: Reviews: A Good Day To Die Hard”, in The Onion AV Club:
2
Causing breakdown or disassembly.
- Catabolism is a destructive metabolism that involves the breakdown of molecules and release of energy.
3
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences Lossy; causing irreversible change.
- Blurring an image is a destructive operation, but rotating an image is not.
- Synonyms
- calamitous, catastrophic, devastating, disastrous, eradicative, harmful, pernicious, ruinous, wrackful, wreckful
- Antonyms
- constructive, nondestructive, non-destructive, productive
- Derived terms
31 terms
angiodestructive, antidestructive, autodestructive, cyclodestructive, cytodestructive, destructive backspace, destructive criticism, destructive distillation, destructive interference, destructively, destructiveness, destructive read, destructive sorites, destructivism, destructivist, destructivity, hyperdestructive, immunodestructive, indestructive, interdestructive, macrodestructive, neurodestructive, nondestructive, non-destructive read, omnidestructive, overdestructive, self-destructive, semidestructive, superdestructive, ultradestructive, undestructive