tear down

• “No one seemed to blame the tabloid columnist who'd written, 'The once-revered Sid Halley, green with envy, tries to tear down a talent he hasn't a prayer of matching …' There had been inches about 'A spiteful little man trying to compensate for his own inadequacies. ”

  Come To Grief

• “Endeavors have repeatedly been made to obtain permission from the sovereign to tear down the brick wall so as to give access to this staircase, not only for the sake of convenience, but also with the object of setting at rest forever the popular superstitions and rumors on the subject.”

  The Secret Memoirs of the Courts of Europe

• “Thus the meaning and purpose of revolutions isnot to tear down the whole building but to remove what is bad or unsuitableand to continue building on the sound spot that has been laid bare.”

  Mein Kampf

• “Harold and I were lucky to find this place, which is near the summit of Highway 9, then a left-right-left down three forks of unmarked dirt roads, unmarked because the residents always tear down the signs to keep out salesmen, developers, and city inspectors.”

  The Joy Luck Club

• “Psychologically, it is quite intelligible that men like Zwingli, Karlstadt and Oecolampadius should tear down the altars, for they denied Christ's real presence in the Sacrament.”

  The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 10: Mass Music-Newman

• “The king surely treated the priests at Heliopolis with great respect—in pointed contrast to the Persian king Cambyses, who had tried to destroy the holy site and tear down the nearby obelisks.”

  Simon & Schuster: Alexander the Great

• “At others he will with his own hands tear down some other man's gate and declare that a path has existed there from time immemorial, defying the owner to prosecute him for trespass.”

  Fictionaut: The Seriously Deranged Writer and the Model Cars

• “Page 3 of the roads allowed; persons must be requested not to trample upon it with unnecessary violence; tear down that wood gate, back of the South Building and replace it with one that will shut by a spring; also place”

  Letter from James Johnston Pettigrew to David L. Swain, August 16, 1847

• “If here I set to work to tear down an old and ramshackle building, it is not from blind destructfulness, but as an architect who means to put a new and sounder structure in its place.”

  The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic Interpretation

• “Botchup and Snipe had not been part of that transformation; instead, they were seen (quite accurately) as being sent to tear down everything that Captain Jester had built.”

  Phule me twice

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