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To destroy the force of habit in; to wean from a custom. Johnson.

To destroy the aggregation of; to separate into component parts, as an aggregate mass.

To destroy or disturb the comfort of; to deprive oas, a smoky chimney discomforts a family.

To throw into disorder; to ruffle; to destroy the composure or equanimity; to agitate. Opposition . . . discomposeth the mind's serenity. Glanvill.

To deprive of credibility; to destroy confidence or trust in; to cause disbelief in the accuracy or authority of. An occasion might be given to the . . . papists of discrediting our common English Bible. Strype.

To free from infectious or contagious matter; to destroy putrefaction; to purify; to make innocuous. When the infectious matter and the infectious matter and the odoriferous matter are one . . . then to deodorize is to disinfect. Ure.

To destroy the organic structure or regular system of (a government, a society, a party, etc.); to break up (what is organized); to throw into utter disorder; to disarrange. Lyford . . . attempted to disorganize the church. Eliot (1809).

To destroy by wasteful extravagance or lavish use; to squander. The vast wealth . . . was in three years dissipated. Bp. Burnet.

to bring to an end by separating the parts, sundering a relation, etc.; to terminate; to destroy; to deprive of force; as, to dissolve a partnership; to dissolve Parliament. Lest his ungoverned rage dissolve the life. Shak.

To separate; to sunder; to destroy. [R.] Chapman.

To destroy the union of; to divide; to part; to sever; to disjoin; to sunder; to separate; as, to disunite particles of matter.

To cut off, bar, or destroy; as, to dock an entail.

ughly deceived, cheated, or fooled. [Colloq.] -- Done for, tired out; used up; collapsed; destroyed; dead; killed. [Colloq.] -- Done up. (a) Wrapped up. (b) Worn out; exhausted. [Colloq.]

To pull from a sheath, as a sword. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Ex. xv. 9.

Arum family (Dieffenbachia seguina), which, when chewed, causes the tongue to swell, and destroys temporarily the power of speech. -- Dumb crambo. See under crambo. -- Dumb show. (a) Formerly, a part of a dramatic representation, shown in pantomime. "Inexplicable dumb shows and noise." Shak. (b) Signs and gestures w…

Destroying by dynamite, for political ends. Dynamiting is not the American way. The Century.

accompanied by a rumbling noise. The wave of shock sometimes traverses half a hemisphere, destroying cities and many thousand lives; -- called also earthdin, earthquave, and earthshock. Earthquake alarm, a bell signal constructed to operate on the theory that a few seconds before the occurrence of an earthquake the mag…

corrode, as metal, by rust; to consume the flesh, as a cancer; to waste or wear away; to destroy gradually; to cause to disappear. To eat humble pie. See under Humble. -- To eat of (partitive use). "Eat of the bread that can not waste." Keble. -- To eat one's words, to retract what one has said. (See the Citation un…

To destroy, as a mental impression; to wear away. Efface from his mind the theories and notions vulgarly received. Bacon.

y, under Comma. -- Elm moth (Zoöl.), one of numerous species of moths of which the larvæ destroy the leaves of the elm (esp. Eugonia subsignaria, called elm spanworm). -- Elm sawfly (Zoöl.), a large sawfly (Cimbex Americana). The larva, which is white with a black dorsal stripe, feeds on the leaves of the elm.…