Pulverise

verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To render into dust or powder. transitive
  2. 2
    make into a powder by breaking up or cause to become dust wordnet
  3. 3
    To completely destroy, especially by crushing to fragments or a powder. transitive
  4. 4
    become powder or dust wordnet
  5. 5
    To defeat soundly, thrash. figuratively, transitive
Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    destroy completely wordnet
  2. 7
    To become reduced to powder; to fall to dust. intransitive

    "the stone pulverises easily"

Synonyms

All synonyms
baffleconvincecrushdefeatdemolishdemolish

Example

More examples

"Everyone is familiar with the fact that pumice floats upon water; this it does, not because it is a material specifically lighter than water, but because cavities filled with air make up a great part of its bulk. If we pulverise pumice, we find the powder sinks readily in water, but the rock in its natural condition floats for the same reason that an iron ship does—because of the air-chambers which it encloses."

Etymology

From Middle English pulverizen, from Latin pulverizō, pulverizāre, from pulvis (“powder”). Compare French pulvériser. By surface analysis, pulver (“powder”) + -ise.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.