different between destroy vs unwork

English

Etymology

From Middle English destroyen, from Old French destruire, Vulgar Latin *destrug?, from Classical Latin d?stru?, from d?- (“un-, de-”) + stru? (“I build”). Displaced native shend (“destroy, injure”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??st???/
• Rhymes: -??
• Hyphenation: de?stroy

Verb

destroy (third-person singular simple present destroys, present participle destroying, simple past and past participle destroyed)

2. (transitive, intransitive) To damage beyond use or repair.

3. (transitive) To neutralize, undo a property or condition.

4. (transitive) To put down or euthanize.

5. (transitive) To severely disrupt the well-being of (a person); ruin.
   • 2005, Kliatt Young Adult Paperback Book Guide

     Other girls in the foster home are eager to destroy her and get her kicked out of the place. It's a tough situation.

6. (colloquial, transitive, hyperbolic) To defeat soundly.
7. (computing, transitive) To remove data.

8. (US, colloquial, slang) To sing a song poorly.
9. (bodybuilding, slang, antiphrasis) To exhaust duly and thus recreate or build up.

10. (slang, vulgar) To penetrate sexually in an aggressive way.

Synonyms

• annihilate
• break
• demolish
• kill
• ruin
• waste
• See also Thesaurus:destroy

Antonyms

• build
• construct
• create
• make
• raise
• repair

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Anagrams

• stroyed

English

Etymology 1

un- +? work

Verb

unwork (third-person singular simple present unworks, present participle unworking, simple past and past participle unworked or (archaic) unwrought)

1. (transitive) To undo or destroy (work previously done).

Etymology 2

From un- +? work.

Noun

unwork (uncountable)

1. The lack or absence of work; worklessness.
   • 1892, John Greenleaf Wittier, The Prose of John Greenleaf Wittier:

     That comfortable philosophy which modern transcendentalism has but dimly shadowed forth — that poetic agrarianism, which gives all to each and each to all— is the real life of this city of unwork.

   • 1963, Life - Jan 1963:

     Collective bargaining has a crisis of "unwork" — that is, work which Justice Douglas once called "unwanted . . . totally useless." So much "unwork" clutters the table that collective bargaining is no longer able to do what it should: […]