What's the difference between defeat and destroy?

Defeat


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To resist with success; as, to defeat an assault.
  • (v. t.) To undo; to disfigure; to destroy.
  • (v. t.) To render null and void, as a title; to frustrate, as hope; to deprive, as of an estate.
  • (v. t.) To overcome or vanquish, as an army; to check, disperse, or ruin by victory; to overthrow.
  • (v.) An undoing or annulling; destruction.
  • (v.) Frustration by rendering null and void, or by prevention of success; as, the defeat of a plan or design.
  • (v.) An overthrow, as of an army in battle; loss of a battle; repulse suffered; discomfiture; -- opposed to victory.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) This defeat, though, is hardly a good calling card for the main job.
  • (2) To confront this evil – and defeat it, standing together for our values, for our security, for our prosperity.” Merkel gave a strong endorsement of Cameron’s reform strategy, saying that Britain’s demands were “not just understandable, but worthy of support”.
  • (3) He campaigned for a no vote and won handsomely, backed by more than 61%, before performing a striking U-turn on Thursday night, re-tabling the same austerity terms he had campaigned to defeat and which the voters rejected.
  • (4) John Carver witnessed signs of much-needed improvement from the visitors in a purposeful spell either side of the interval but it was not enough to prevent a fifth successive Premier League defeat.
  • (5) Different games, different moments but it is very important to start winning our points at home.” City started their title defence by defeating Newcastle United 2-0.
  • (6) Instead of inevitable defeat there is uncertain cop-out.
  • (7) Long-term: The defeat of Isis is a political shaping exercise – you find moderate Sunni leaders, empower and install them in Syria and Iraq.
  • (8) Clinton lost the presidency and Democrats lost those seats, as Democrats suffered staggering defeats across two branches of government.
  • (9) A foretaste of discontent came when Florian Thauvin, the underachieving £13m winger signed from Marseille last summer , was serenaded with chants of ‘You’re not fit to wear the shirt” from away fans during Saturday’s FA Cup defeat at Watford .
  • (10) Hagan’s defeat came as a shock and a heavy blow for the Democratic party in North Carolina, a purple state that now has no Democratic senator or governor for the first time in 30 years.
  • (11) The Iraqi prime minister has fired several senior security force commanders over the defeats in the face of Isis and on Wednesday announced that 59 military officers would be prosecuted for abandoning the city of Mosul.
  • (12) It's almost starting to feel like we're back in the good old days of July 2005, when Paris lost out to London in the battle to stage the 2012 Olympic Games, a defeat immediately interpreted by France as a bitter blow to Gallic ideals of fair play and non-commercialism and yet another undeserved triumph for the underhand, free-market manoeuvrings of perfidious Albion.
  • (13) The Liverpool manager was incensed by Lee Mason's performance at the Etihad Stadium on Boxing Day, when a 2-1 defeat cost his team the Premier League leadership and Raheem Sterling had a first half goal disallowed for an incorrect offside call.
  • (14) Following a run which included eight straight draws in the Premier League and a 3-0 defeat at Tottenham last Wednesday, Mubarak had reached the conclusion that Hughes and his coaching staff were not realising the potential of the players City had assembled.
  • (15) Southampton, with injuries and defeats to consider, were left licking their wounds.
  • (16) Three million of us are behind our team!” trumpets La Republica, who hail “the national team's exemplary behaviour so far, both individually and collectively.” Naturally they were saying exactly the same thing after the defeat to Costa Rica.
  • (17) However since the night of our defeat last week I have been subject to the added level of pressure that comes with being a leadership candidate.
  • (18) Photograph: Martin Argles for the Guardian A journey that started five years ago with a promise to bring Labour together – to avoid the civil strife that traditionally followed election defeat – risks ending where it began: contemplating electoral wilderness.
  • (19) Despite a lack of traditional campaign organization, a mix of big rallies and constant appearances on cable news helped Trump defeat what had been described as the strongest field in Republican history.
  • (20) "The title race is over but that changes nothing as we should do our best from now until the end of the season," the Italian said before explaining why he did not speak to the media after the 2-0 defeat at Everton in City's previous game .

Destroy


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To unbuild; to pull or tear down; to separate virulently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure and organic existence of; to demolish.
  • (v. t.) To ruin; to bring to naught; to put an end to; to annihilate; to consume.
  • (v. t.) To put an end to the existence, prosperity, or beauty of; to kill.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The measure destroyed the Justice Department’s plans to prosecute whatever Guantánamo detainees it could in federal courts.
  • (2) Whereas the growth and division of normal cells is carefully regulated to meet the needs of the body, tumor cells proliferate autonomously and continually, eventually interfering with and destroying the functions of normal tissue.
  • (3) More evil than Clocky , the alarm clock that rolls away when you reach out to silence it, or the Puzzle Alarm , which makes you complete a simple puzzle before it'll go quiet, the Money Shredding Alarm Clock methodically destroys your cash unless you rouse yourself.
  • (4) Total costs of building the three missile destroyers in Australia will amount to more than $9bn, approximately three times the cost of buying the ships ready made from Spanish company Navantia, The Australian reported on Friday .
  • (5) When allegations of systemic doping and cover-ups first emerged in the runup to the 2013 Russian world athletics championships, an IOC spokesman insisted: “Anti-doping measures in Russia have improved significantly over the last five years with an effective, efficient and new laboratory and equipment in Moscow.” London Olympics were sabotaged by Russia’s doping, report says Read more We now know that the head of that lauded Moscow lab, Grigory Rodchenko, admitted to intentionally destroying 1,417 samples in December last year shortly before Wada officials visited.
  • (6) Mortality rates naturally vary considerably, but in earthquakes, for example, the number of deaths per 100 houses destroyed can give an indication of the adequacy of building techniques.
  • (7) Dialyzed crude enzyme extracts from yeast cells were found to destroy diacetyl in a manner quite similar to that of diacetyl reductase from Aerobacter aerogenes, and both the bacterial and the yeast extracts were stimulated significantly by the addition of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH).
  • (8) Macron hit back on Twitter, saying her proposals to take France out of the EU would destroy France’s fishing industry.
  • (9) Part of his initial lump sum will be donated to a fund to replace a hall destroyed by fire in an arson attack four years ago at St Luke’s Church in Newton Poppleford.
  • (10) We report that kainic acid lesions of the posterior corpus striatum, which preferentially spare fibers of passage while destroying striatopallidal neurons, produce a stimulus-sensitive movement pattern in rats that has a highly specific sensory trigger.
  • (11) Spinal cord stimulation would suppress at least the dorsal horn neurons which were destroyed by various kinds of diseases.
  • (12) To overcome these problems we developed methotrexate bone cement (MTX-Palacos) with the aim to obtain high local concentrations of methotrexate in order to destroy remaining tumor cells and avoid systemic side effects.
  • (13) Liposomes of PC10 rapidly destroyed sperm motility while PC12 acrosome-reacted sperm remained motile for several h. Liposomes of PC with greater than or equal to 14-carbon fatty acyl chains had no effect on the AR or motility of sperm.
  • (14) Admirable, but will destroying ivory get that message through to poachers, ivory traffickers and the workshops in east Asia and elsewhere that buy smuggled raw ivory?
  • (15) Surgery of destroyed joints in the hand and wrist in the arthritic patient can be added to the armamentarium of the reconstructive arthritis surgeon.
  • (16) It is that beautiful moment when the original Metamorphosis is destroyed so that it can be refashioned for a global community of readers in dire need of new forms of storytelling.
  • (17) Alfred Liyolo, 71, one of Congo’s leading sculptors , sold several bronzes to the palace in Gbadolite and designed a church and tomb for Mobutu’s first wife; all were lost or destroyed in the looting.
  • (18) A frameshift mutation in the mouse mammary tumor virus myc gene destroyed the dexamethasone stimulation of mr1, indicating that c-myc protein is required for the effect.
  • (19) While cells that were treated with antibody were unable to aggregate because of the inability to destroy cAMP, they aggregated normally when washed free of antibody.
  • (20) It would have to be destroyed four and a half years after initial collection.