Library / English Dictionary

DESTROYER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small fast lightly armored but heavily armed warship

Synonyms:

destroyer; guided missile destroyer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("destroyer" is a kind of...):

combat ship; war vessel; warship (a government ship that is available for waging war)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "destroyer"):

tin can (informal term for a destroyer)

torpedo-boat destroyer (small destroyer that was the forerunner of modern destroyers; designed to destroy torpedo boats)

Instance hyponyms:

USS Cole (a United States destroyer)

Derivation:

destroy (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

destroy (do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who destroys or ruins or lays waste to

Example:

uprooters of gravestones

Synonyms:

destroyer; ruiner; undoer; uprooter; waster

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("destroyer" is a kind of...):

bad person (a person who does harm to others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "destroyer"):

annihilator (a total destroyer)

iconoclast; image breaker (a destroyer of images used in religious worship)

diversionist; saboteur; wrecker (someone who commits sabotage or deliberately causes wrecks)

vandal (someone who willfully destroys or defaces property)

Derivation:

destroy (destroy completely; damage irreparably)

destroy (do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of)

Credits

 Context examples: 

My manner as I thus addressed him was impressive but calm; I had formed in my own heart a resolution to pursue my destroyer to death, and this purpose quieted my agony and for an interval reconciled me to life.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Then the appearance of death was distant, although the wish was ever present to my thoughts; and I often sat for hours motionless and speechless, wishing for some mighty revolution that might bury me and my destroyer in its ruins.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Nor did my hate long confine itself to useless wishes; I began to reflect on the best means of securing him; and for this purpose, about a month after my release, I repaired to a criminal judge in the town and told him that I had an accusation to make, that I knew the destroyer of my family, and that I required him to exert his whole authority for the apprehension of the murderer.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)