de|mol|ish «dih MOL ihsh», transitive verb.
1. to pull or tear down; reduce to ruin: »
Shells and bombs demolished the fortress. The slums were demolished before the town was extended.
SYNONYM(S): ruin, raze. See syn. under destroy. (Cf. ↑destroy)2. Figurative: »
Princeton demolished…one of the best Dartmouth teams (New Yorker). Professor Lattimore…demolishes several of the accepted legends about early Mongolian history (Manchester Guardian Weekly).
╂[< Middle French démoliss-, stem of démolir, learned borrowing from Latin dēmōlīrī tear down < dē- down + mōlēs, mōlis mass, might]
–de|mol´ish|er, noun.
Useful english dictionary. 2012.