Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A mechanism for causing a device to destroy itself.
- v. To destroy oneself or itself: "died at 28, wasted from years of self-destructing on drugs” ( Jack Kroll).
Wiktionary
- v. To destroy oneself.
WordNet 3.0
- v. do away with oneself or itself
Etymologies
- self- + destruct (Wiktionary)
- Back-formation from self-destruction. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Bonjean said Romney clearly wants to let Perry "walk out on his own plank with his own saw" -- in other words, self-destruct.”
“I watched one remarkable president, Lyndon Johnson, self-destruct because he could not level with the American people about a war he was waging in their name.”
“The distinction between "celebrity" and "star" was quite different in those days, and while there have always been actors who self-destruct, watching it happen today seems to have become almost a blood sport.”
The Huffington Post: Maria Cooper Janis: Gary Cooper: A Father, a Man, an American
“Maybe s/he will be so nutty, so unreasonable, so vile, that, assuming you're not equally horrible justifying a "plague on both your houses" mentality by the judge, s/he will self-destruct.”
The Huffington Post: Terri Weiss: The Crux of Divorce Decisions is The Smell Test
“A siren blared through the halls, indicating that the self-destruct had been initiated.”
“Cuomo has mostly been able to kickback and watch Paladino's campaign self-destruct.”
The Huffington Post: NYC Elections 2010: Last Minute Voter Guide To Crucial Races
“Obama, with his characteristic tone of bridge-building and moderation, may hope the gods will smile on him and the Republican Party will self-destruct while he holds the reasonable high ground.”
The Huffington Post: Robert Kuttner: From Depression to Public Inspiration
“Eventually he will self-destruct, but how much damage will be done is the underlying issue.”
“Democrats are great you can just sit back and watch them self-destruct ......”
Boehner: I'll vote against any resolution criticizing Wilson
“After this period of self-destruct, a public option can be introduced and the treacherous Republicans will have nothing to cry about.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘self-destruct’.
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WF - list of EN back-formations
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_back-formations
aborigine, accrete, acculturate, admix, admixture, adolesce, adsorb, adulate, advect, aesthete, air-condition, anticline and 212 more...
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The Universal Calculator
Obviates the need for other devices or calculations--it will have a button for everything, and it will solve everything.
qwerty keyboard, shift key, control, home, end, pause, log, sin, space, enter, plus, numb and 241 more...
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science fact or fiction
pretty open-ended here—terms, ideas, lingo, technologies and phenomena (real or postulated) that are, were, should be or could be used in speculative fiction
tachyon, mecha, dropship, wetware, meatspace, nanobot, cloned meat, asteroid mining, hyperdrive, wormhole, parallel universe, distributed intel... and 464 more...
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Baby Got Back-Formations
"A new word created by removing an affix from an already existing word, as vacuum clean from vacuum cleaner, or by removing what is mistakenly thought to be an affix, as pea from the earlier Englis...
resurrect, enthuse, couth, donate, emote, greed, isolate, manipulate, orate, prequel, spectate, upholster and 94 more...
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the catch-all
inveigle, frontier, invective, quizzical, merit, proficiency, eleemosynary, ham-handed, circumspect, epergne, cobble, industriousness and 201 more...
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backformations
Inspired by the hilarious discussion of the word bant at around the five-minute mark of this video.
bant, maffick, surveil, ablute, pea, burgle, couth, liaise, reminisce, fluoresce, emote, enthuse and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for self-destruct.
reesetee I have one too--added. Nov 30, 2009
sionnach Added to my list - thanks, rolig! Nov 27, 2009
vanishedone Actually, the O.E.D. lists a verb 'to destruct' (defined as equivalent to destroy) with destructed attested in an example from before 1638, but it does have the note: 'Quot. a1638 is an isolated use. The recent (chiefly U.S.) use in Rocketry is prob. in part a back-formation on DESTRUCTION.' So probably and in part you're right. Nov 27, 2009
rolig I just realized this is a back-formation from self-destruction. After all, there is no word "to destruct". Doesn't someone have a list of back-formations where this belongs? Nov 27, 2009