Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To pound, crush, or grind to a powder or dust.
  • intransitive verb To overwhelm or defeat utterly.
  • intransitive verb To be ground or reduced to powder or dust.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To reduce to fine powder, as by pounding, grinding, etc.
  • To become reduced to fine powder; fall to dust.
  • In ornithology, to roll or wallow in the dust; take a sand- or dust-bath, as a hen or partridge.
  • Also spelled pulverise.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To become reduced to powder; to fall to dust.
  • transitive verb To reduce of fine powder or dust, as by beating, grinding, or the like.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb American Alternative spelling of pulverise.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb destroy completely
  • verb become powder or dust
  • verb make into a powder by breaking up or cause to become dust

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English pulverizen, from Late Latin pulverizāre, from Latin pulvis, pulver-, dust.]

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