Razeing

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. Tearing down a building or structure entirely so that nothing remains standing above the ground
2. Knocking a structure flat to the ground or destroying a settlement completely until only its foundations are left
3. Demolishing something utterly, reducing a building, town or area to rubble or bare ground

Etymology: "Razeing" is the present participle of "raze," meaning to tear down a building or other structure completely, leaving it flat. The verb entered English in the 1500s, borrowed from French "raser," which came from Latin "rasare," a frequentative of "radere," "to scrape or shave." The sense of shaving a surface smooth is what the verb started from, and its later meaning of levelling a structure is essentially the same idea scaled up: scraping a building off the ground until only the foundation is left. The participle form "razing" (with one z, the standard spelling) and "razeing" (with the e kept before -ing) are both attested in older and British usage. The e is retained in the spelling because the root ends in a silent e, a convention that English spellers often followed for verbs ending in -e before a vowel suffix, so both spellings show up in dictionaries and print.