destructiveness
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de·struc·tive
(dĭ-strŭk′tĭv)adj.
1. Causing or wreaking destruction; ruinous: a destructive act; a policy that is destructive to the economy.
2. Designed or tending to disprove or discredit: destructive criticism.
de·struc′tive·ly adv.
de·struc′tive·ness, de′struc·tiv′i·ty (dē′strŭk-tĭv′ĭ-tē) n.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Destruction/Destructiveness
See Also: DISINTEGRATION
- As killing as the canker to the rose —John Milton
- (Bones) breaking like hearts —Bin Ramke
- Break [a person’s spirit] like a biscuit —Beaumont and Fletcher
- Break like a bursting heart —Percy Bysshe Shelley
- Break like dead leaves —Richard Howard
- Cracked like parchment —Sin Ai
- Cracked like the ice in a frozen daiquiri —Anon
- (Her projects of happiness … ) crackled in the wind like dead boughs —Gustave Flaubert
- Crack like walnuts —Rita Mae Brown
- Crack like wishbones —Diane Ackerman
- Cracks … like a glass in which the contents turned to ice, and shiver it —Herman Melville
- [Fender and hood of a car] crumpled like tinfoil —T. Coraghessan Boyle
- Crushed like an empty beer can —Anon
- Crushed … like rats in a slate fall —Davis Grubb
In Grubb’s novel, The Barefoot Man, the simile refers to miners who lost their lives.
- Crushed like rotten apples —William Shakespeare
- Crushed me like a grape —Carla Lane, British television sitcom, “Solo,” broadcast, May 19, 1987
- (And I’ll be) cut up like a pie —Irish ballad
- Destructive as moths in a woolens closet —Anon
- [Time’s malevolent effect on body] dragging him down like a bursting sack —Gerald Kersh
- (The Communists are) eating us away like an old fruit —Janet Flanner
- (Men) fade like leaves —Aristophanes
- Flattened her pitiful attempt like a locomotive running on a single track full steam ahead —Cornell Woolrich
- (Creditors ready to) gnaw him to bits … like maggots at work on a carcass —George Garrett
- The grass (at Shea Stadium) looked as if it had been attacked by animals that had not grazed for ages —Alex Yannis, New York Times, September 18, 1986
Yannis, in reporting on the Mets’ winning the National League Eastern Division title, used the simile to describe the fans’ destruction of the playing field.
- If I do [give up] … I’ll be like a bullfighter gone horn-shy —Loren D. Estleman
- Like a divorce … goes ripping through our lives —Book jacket copy describing effect of Sharon Sheehe Stark’s novel, A Wrestling Season.
- Marked for annihilation like an orange scored for peeling —Yehuda Amichai
- My heroes [Chicago Cubs] had wilted like slugs —George F. Will
- Pollutes … like ratbite —William Alfred
- Self-destructing like a third-rate situation comedy —Warren T. Brookes, on Republican party, Wall Street Journal, July 15, 1986
- Shattered like a walnut shell —Charles Dickens
In Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, the comparison refers to a broken wine cask.
- Shatter them like so much glass —Robert Louis Stevenson
- Shrivel up like some old straw broom —Joyce Carol Oates
- Snap like dry chicken bones —David Michael
- [Taut nerves] snap like guy wires in a tornado —Nardi Reeder Campion, New York Times r/raes/Op-Ed, January, 5, 1987
- (Then the illusion) snapped like a nest of threads —F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Snapped off [due to frailness] like celery —Lawrence Durrell
- (Who can accept that spirit can be) snuffed as finally as a flame —Barbara Lazear Ascher, New York Times 77mes/Hers, October 30, 1986
- They [free-spending wife and daughter] ate holes in me like Swiss cheese —Clifford Odets
- Wear out their lives, like old clothes —John Cheever
- Your destruction comes as a whirlwind —The Holy Bible /Proverbs
Similes Dictionary, 1st Edition. © 1988 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
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Noun | 1. | destructiveness - the quality of causing destruction quality - an essential and distinguishing attribute of something or someone; "the quality of mercy is not strained"--Shakespeare harmfulness, injuriousness - destructiveness that causes harm or injury poison - anything that harms or destroys; "the poison of fascism" constructiveness - the quality of serving to build or improve |
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
تَدْميرِيَّه، تَخْريب
ničivost
destruktivitetødelæggelsesevne
romboló hatás
eyîileggjandi áhrif/hneigî
ničivosť
yıkıcılık
destructiveness
[dɪˈstrʌktɪvnɪs] N [of fire, war, weapon] → capacidad f destructora; [of child] → tendencia f destructiva; [of criticism, attitude, behaviour] → carácter m destructivoCollins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005
destructiveness
n
(of fire, war) → zerstörende Wirkung; (of weapon) → Zerstörungskraft f; (of person, child etc) → Destruktivität f (esp Psych), → Zerstörungswut f
(of criticism) → Destruktivität f, → zersetzende Wirkung
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
destructiveness
[disˈtrʌktɪvnɪs] n (gen) → carattere m distruttivo; (of child) → tendenza a distruggereCollins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995
destruction
(diˈstrakʃən) noun1. the act or process of destroying or being destroyed. the destruction of the city.
2. the state of being destroyed; ruin. a scene of destruction.
desˈtructive (-tiv) adjective1. causing or able to cause destruction. Small children can be very destructive.
2. (of criticism etc) pointing out faults etc without suggesting improvements.
deˈstructively adverbdeˈstructiveness noun
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.