Meaning & use
pulverize
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Meanings
verbtransitive
To crush or grind something until it becomes fine powder or very small pieces.
Grammar: Always takes an object: pulverize the rock.
Patterns
- pulverize something
- pulverize something into something
The machine pulverizes stone into a fine dust.
She pulverized the dried herbs with a mortar and pestle.
The explosion pulverized the old wall.
verbtransitiveinformalfigurative
To defeat an opponent so completely that they have almost no chance at all.
Grammar: Takes a person or team as object: pulverize the opposition.
Patterns
- pulverize someone
- pulverize someone in something
Our team pulverized the visitors 9-0.
The champion pulverized his challenger in the first round.
Critics pulverized the film in their reviews.
Word forms
| third person singular | pulverizes |
|---|---|
| past tense | pulverized |
| past participle | pulverized |
| -ing form | pulverizing |
Common combinations
- pulverize rock
- The crusher can pulverize rock in seconds.
- pulverize into dust
- The old brick was pulverized into dust.
- pulverize the opposition
- They pulverized the opposition in the final.
- completely pulverize
- The blast completely pulverized the car.
- pulverize ingredients
- Pulverize the spices before adding them to the stew.
Synonyms and how they differ
- grind
- Grind suggests rubbing or turning between surfaces and is gentler and more ordinary, while pulverize implies reducing something to a very fine powder.
- crush
- Crush only means to squash with force and may leave large pieces, whereas pulverize implies total breakdown into tiny particles.
- demolish
- Demolish fits buildings and arguments being destroyed, but does not suggest turning something into powder.
- thrash
- Thrash is an informal word for beating a team heavily, comparable to the figurative sense of pulverize but less extreme.
Opposites
Word family
- pulverization noun
- the process of crushing into powder
- pulverizer noun
- a machine or person that crushes things to powder
- pulverized adjective
- reduced to powder or fine bits
Commonly confused: pulverize or vaporize?
pulverize vs vaporize
Vaporize means to turn into gas or vapor, whereas pulverize means to turn into powder or fragments.
Practice
The factory uses a heavy mill to ______ coal into a fine powder.
Choose one answer.
Pulverize means crush into powder, which matches the mill and the fine powder. Dissolve would require a liquid and does not describe a mill.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pulverize”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.