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A brush of twigs for sweeping; a broom; anything which sweeps away or destroys. [Archaic or Fig.] I will sweep it with the besom of destruction. Isa. xiv. 23. The housemaid with her besom. W. Irving.

is born; natural state or position; inherited disposition or tendency. A foe by birth to Troy's unhappy name. Dryden.

, to affect with some sudden violence, plague, calamity, or blighting influence, which destroys or causes to fail; to visit with a curse; to curse; to ruin; as, to blast pride, hopes, or character. I'll cross it, though it blast me. Shak. Blasted with excess of light. T. Gray.

One who, or that which, blasts or destroys.

Hence: To destroy the happiness of; to ruin; to mar essentially; to frustrate; as, to blight one's prospects. Seared in heart and lone and blighted. Byron.

gitive or for committing murder, or of money obtained from the sale of that which will destroy the purchaser.

To burst, shatter, or destroy by an explosion; -- usually with up, down, open, or similar adverb; as, to blow up a building.

an Australian eagle (Aquila audax), which destroys lambs and even the kangaroo. -- To make bold, to take liberties or the liberty; to venture.

gods. The triad consists of Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver, and Siva, the Destroyer.

To dash out the brains of; to kill by beating out the brains. Hence, Fig.: To destroy; to put an end to; to defeat. There thou mayst brain him. Shak. It was the swift celerity of the death . . . That brained my purpose. Shak.

To interrupt; to destroy the continuity of; to dissolve or terminate; as, to break silence; to break one's sleep; to break one's journey. Go, release them, Ariel; My charms I'll break, their senses I'll restore. Shak.

Crushed and ruined as by something that destroys hope; blighted. "Her broken love and life." G. Eliot.

ttached. See Hydra. Bud moth (Zoöl.), a lepidopterous insect of several species, which destroys the buds of fruit trees; esp. Tmetocera ocellana and Eccopsis malana on the apple tree.

by fire or heat; to submit to the action of fire or heat for some economic purpose; to destroy or change some property or properties of, by exposure to fire or heat in due degree for obtaining a desired residuum, product, or effect; to bake; as, to burn clay in making bricks or pottery; to burn wood so as to produce ch…

at; baked or hardened in the fire or the sun. Burnt ear, a black, powdery fungus which destroys grain. See Smut. -- Burnt offering, something offered and burnt on an altar, as an atonement for sin; a sacrifice. The offerings of the Jews were a clean animal, as an ox, a calf, a goat, or a sheep; or some vegetable subst…

.; through means of; with aid of; through; through the act or agency of; as, a city is destroyed by fire; profit is made by commerce; to take by force.

To annul or destroy; to revoke or recall. The indentures were canceled. Thackeray. He was unwilling to cancel the interest created through former secret services, by being refractory on this occasion. Sir W. Scott.

r (Zoö.), A beetle (Oberea bimaculata) which, in the larval state, bores into pith and destroy the canes or stalks of the raspberry, blackberry, etc. -- Cane mill, a mill for grinding sugar canes, for the manufacture of sugar. -- Cane trash, the crushed stalks and other refuse of sugar cane, used for fuel, etc.…

Anything which corrodes, corrupts, or destroy. The cankers of envy and faction. Temple.

moths which are very injurious to fruit and shade trees by eating, and often entirely destroying, the foliage. Other similar larvæ are also called cankerworms.