Destroyings

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The acts or processes of causing complete ruin or devastation to something; the efforts to demolish or eliminate; the instances of breaking down or spoiling completely
2. Actions involving the total annihilation or wrecking of objects or structures; attempts to dismantle or obliterate; moments characterized by causing severe damage beyond repair
3. The processes of rendering something unusable or defunct by damaging extensively; operations aimed at eradicating or leveling; occurrences of inflicting irreversible harm or disintegration

Etymology: "Destroyings" is the plural of "destroying," the gerund-style noun formed from the verb "destroy" and the suffix "-ing," so it means repeated or separate acts of destruction. "Destroy" itself came into English in the 14th century from Old French "destruire," which goes back to Latin "destruere," meaning "to pull down" or "to tear down," built from "de-" (down, away) and "struere" (to build or pile up). The Latin root thus has a construction sense at its core, a reminder that "destroy" began as the undoing of something built. The plural form is rare and mostly appears in older or literary writing, where a writer wants to name individual acts of ruin rather than the abstract process. Because the suffix is productive, English speakers can pluralize many such nouns, but "destroyings" is most often met as a poetic or archaic-sounding variant of "destructions."

Synonyms: demolitions, ruinations, devastations, wreckings, annihilations

Antonyms: creations, constructions, buildings, conservations, preservations