Havoc vs Destroy - What's the difference?
havoc | destroy |
widespread devastation, destruction
* Bible, Acts viii. 3
* Addison
:* {{quote-book
, year=1918
, year_published=2008
, edition=HTML
, editor=
, author=Edgar Rice Burroughs
, title=The People that Time Forgot
, chapter=
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To pillage.
* 1599 , , Henry V , Act I, Scene II:
To cause .
A cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.
* Toone
* Shakespeare
To cause destruction.
To neutralize, undo a property or condition.
To put down or euthanize.
(colloquial) To defeat soundly.
(computing) To remove data.
As verbs the difference between havoc and destroy
is that havoc is to pillage while destroy isto damage beyond use or repair
. As a noun havoc
is widespread devastation, destruction.As an interjection havoc
is a cry in war as the signal for indiscriminate slaughter.havoc
English
Alternative forms
* havock (e.g. in Milton)Noun
(en-noun)- As for Saul, he made havoc of the church.
- Ye gods, what havoc does ambition make / Among your works!
citation, genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=But when I had come to that part of the city which I judged to have contained the relics I sought I found havoc that had been wrought there even greater than elsewhere. }}
Usage notes
The noun havoc is most often used in the set phrase wreak havoc.Old Hungarian Goulash?, The Grammarphobia Blog, October 31, 2008
Derived terms
* play havoc, raise havoc, wreak havoc, cry havoc, break havocVerb
- To tear and havoc more than she can eat.
Usage notes
As with other verbs ending in vowel + -c, The gerund-participle is sometimes spelled havocing, and the preterite and past participle is sometimes spelled havoced; for citations using these spellings, see their respective entries. However, the spellings havocking and havocked are far more common. Compare panic, picnic.References
Interjection
(en interjection)- Do not cry havoc , where you should but hunt / With modest warrant.
- Cry "havoc", and let slip the dogs of war!
destroy
English
Verb
To damage beyond use or repair.
- The earthquake destroyed several apartment complexes.
- ''Hooligans destroy unprovoked
- ''Smoking destroys the natural subtlety of the palate
- Destroying a rabid dog is required by law.
- The memory leak happened because we forgot to destroy the temporary lists.