annihilate

From Latin annihilō (“I reduce to nothing”), from ad (“to”) + nihil (“nothing”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əˈnaɪə.leɪt/

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annihilate (third-person singular simple present annihilates, present participle annihilating, simple past and past participle annihilated)

1. To reduce to nothing, to destroy, to eradicate.

   An atom bomb can annihilate a whole city.

2. (particle physics) To react with antimatter, producing gamma radiation.
3. (archaic) To treat as worthless, to vilify.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 17, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:

     of all the opinions which Antiquity hath had of men in gross, those which I most willingly embrace, and whereon I take most hold, are such as most vilifie, condemne, and annihilate us.

4. (transitive) To render null and void; to abrogate.

• (to reduce to nothing): benothing, destroy, eradicate, extinguish
• See also Thesaurus:destroy

• (to reduce to nothing): create, generate

• annihilate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• annihilate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

annihilāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of annihilō