. (Nav.) A very fast, unarmored, lightly armed vessel designed to capture or destroy merchant vessels of an enemy. Not being intended to fight, they may be improvised from fast passenger steamers. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Destroyed p. pr. & vb. n. Destroying. ] [ OE. destroien, destruien, destrien, OF. destruire, F. détruire, fr. L. destruere, destructum; de + struere to pile up, build. See Structure. ] 1. To unbuild; to pull or tear down; to separate virulently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure and organic existence of; to demolish. [ 1913 Webster ]

But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. Ex. xxxiv. 13. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To ruin; to bring to naught; to put an end to; to annihilate; to consume. [ 1913 Webster ]

I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation. Jer. xii. 17. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To put an end to the existence, prosperity, or beauty of; to kill. [ 1913 Webster ]

If him by force he can destroy, or, worse,
By some false guile pervert. Milton.

Syn. -- To demolish; lay waste; consume; raze; dismantle; ruin; throw down; overthrow; subvert; desolate; devastate; deface; extirpate; extinguish; kill; slay. See Demolish. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Destructible. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Plants . . . scarcely destroyable by the weather. Derham. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. 1. p. p. of destroy. [ Narrower terms: annihilated, exterminated, wiped out(predicate); blasted, desolate, desolated, devastated, ravaged, ruined, wasted; blighted, spoilt; blotted out, obliterate, obliterated; demolished, dismantled, razed; done for(predicate), kaput(predicate), gone(prenominal), lost, finished(predicate); extinguished; ruined, wiped out(predicate), impoverished; totaled, wrecked; war-torn, war-worn; despoiled, pillaged, raped, ravaged, sacked ] Also See: damaged. Antonym: preserved [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. destroyed physically or morally.
Syn. -- ruined. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Cf. OF. destruior. ] 1. One who destroys, ruins, kills, or desolates. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Nav.) a small fast warship used primarily as an escort to larger vessels and typically armed with a combination of 5-inch guns, torpedos, depth charges, and missiles; formerly identical to the Torpedo-boat destroyer. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. One who destroys himself; a suicide. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To destroy. [ Obs. ] Tusser. [ 1913 Webster ]

. A larger, swifter, and more powerful armed type of torpedo boat, originally intended principally for the destruction of torpedo boats, but later used also as a more formidable torpedo boat. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. Troy weight. [ 1913 Webster ]

Troy weight, the weight which gold and silver, jewels, and the like, are weighed. It was so named from Troyes, in France, where it was first adopted in Europe. The troy ounce is supposed to have been brought from Cairo during the crusades. In this weight the pound is divided into 12 ounces, the ounce into 20 pennyweights, and the pennyweight into 24 grains; hence, the troy ounce contains 480 grains, and the troy pound contains 5760 grains. The avoirdupois pound contains 7000 troy grains; so that 175 pounds troy equal 144 pounds avoirdupois, or 1 pound troy = 0.82286 of a pound avoirdupois, and 1 ounce troy = 117/175 or 1.09714 ounce avoirdupois. Troy weight when divided, the pound into 12 ounces, the ounce into 8 drams, the dram into 3 scruples, and the scruple into 20 grains, is called apothecaries' weight, used in weighing medicines, etc. In the standard weights of the United States, the troy ounce is divided decimally down to the 1/10000 part. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Troy ounce, under Troy weight, above, and under Ounce. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Indestructible. [ 1913 Webster ]