DESTRUCTIVE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does destructive mean? 

• DESTRUCTIVE (adjective)
  The adjective DESTRUCTIVE has 1 sense:

1. causing destruction or much damage

  Familiarity information: DESTRUCTIVE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESTRUCTIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Causing destruction or much damage

Context example:

destructive criticism

Similar:

annihilating; annihilative; devastating; withering (wreaking or capable of wreaking complete destruction)

blasting; ruinous (causing injury or blight; especially affecting with sudden violence or plague or ruin)

cataclysmal; cataclysmic (severely destructive)

caustic; corrosive; erosive; mordant; vitriolic (of a substance, especially a strong acid; capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action)

crushing; devastating (physically or spiritually devastating; often used in combination)

damaging; negative (designed or tending to discredit, especially without positive or helpful suggestions)

erosive (wearing away by friction)

iconoclastic (destructive of images used in religious worship; said of religions, such as Islam, in which the representation of living things is prohibited)

ravaging (ruinously destructive and wasting)

soul-destroying (destructive to the spirit or soul)

wasteful (laying waste)

Also:

harmful (causing or capable of causing harm)

negative (characterized by or displaying negation or denial or opposition or resistance; having no positive features)

Antonym:

constructive (constructing or tending to construct or improve or promote development)

Derivation:

destroy (do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of)

destructiveness (the quality of causing destruction)

 Context examples 

Patients are usually young children presenting with multiple destructive bone lesions.

(Hand-Schuller-Christian Disease, NCI Thesaurus)

Unwilling as she was to admit an idea so destructive of Jane's happiness, and so dishonorable to the stability of her lover, she could not prevent its frequently occurring.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Nephrotoxicity Inhibition involves interference with, or restraint of, the activities of an agent, a biologic molecule or complex, or a cell having toxic or destructive action on kidney cells.

(Nephrotoxicity Inhibition, NCI Thesaurus)

There is no evidence of destructive stromal invasion.

(Borderline Papillary Mucinous Cystadenoma, NCI Thesaurus)

Because these cells are endowed with MHC-non-restricted killer activity, TALL-104 has destructive potential against a broad range of tumors, while sparing normal cells.

(Human MHC Non-Restricted Cytotoxic T-Cell Line TALL-104, NCI Thesaurus)

Late yaws is characterized by destructive and deforming lesions of the skin, bones, and joints.

(Late Yaws, NCI Thesaurus)

It is characterized by destructive infiltration of lymph nodes and extranodal sites by a monotonous population of transformed B-lymphocytes or plasma cells.

(Monomorphic B-Cell Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)

A rare entity characterized by localized but destructive growth of a tumor consisting of highly atypical, immature mast cells.

(Mast Cell Sarcoma, NCI Thesaurus/WHO)

Destructive growth of lymph cells, usually involving the lungs, skin, kidneys, and central nervous system.

(Lymphomatoid granulomatosis, NCI Dictionary)

It is characterized by destructive infiltration of lymph nodes and extranodal sites by a monotonous population of transformed T-lymphocytes/NK-cells.

(Monomorphic T/NK-Cell Post-Transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorder, NCI Thesaurus)