diaphtheirō (to destroy)

Meaning

Usually translated “destroy”, “is being brought to decay” and “corrupted”. Open the dictionary entry below for the full range of meaning, with the verses it cites.

How it's translated

destroy 1
is being brought to decay 1
corrupted 1
were destroyed 1
to destroy 1
destroying 1

Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.

Where it's used most

Revelation 2
Luke 1
2 Corinthians 1
1 Timothy 1

4 books in all.

Related words

Explore in Scripture

Luke 12:33Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth.
2 Corinthians 4:16For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
Revelation 8:9And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
Revelation 11:18And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

Greek dictionary

διαφθείρω diaphtheirō · to destroy

δια-φθείρω [in LXX chiefly for שָׁחַת hi. ;] 1. to destroy utterly: Luk.12:33, Rev.11:18; pass., to be destroyed, disabled: Rev.8:9, 2Co.4:16. 2. In moral sense, to corrupt, deprave: τ. γῆν, Rev.11:18; pass., διεφθαρμένοι τ. νοῦν, 1Ti.6:5.† (AS)

From STEPBible’s Greek lexicon (based on Abbott-Smith).

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

How the English word “destroy” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.

DESTROY, verb transitive

[Latin To pile, to build.]

To demolish; to pull down; to separate the parts of an edifice, the union of which is necessary to constitute the thing; as, to destroy a house or temple; to destroy a fortification.
To ruin; to annihilate a thing by demolishing or by burning; as, to destroy a city.
To ruin; to bring to naught; to annihilate; as, to destroy a theory or scheme; to destroy a government; to destroy influence.
To lay waste; to make desolate.“Go up against this land, and destroy it” Isaiah 36:10

All definitions

To kill; to slay; to extirpate; applied to men or other animals.“Ye shall destroy all this people” Numbers 32:15“All the wicked will he destroy” Psalms 145:20
To take away; to cause to cease; to put an end to; as, pain destroys happiness.“That the body of sin might be destroyed” Romans 6:6
To kill; to eat; to devour; to consume.
In general, to put an end to; to annihilate a thing or the form in which it exists.
In chimistry, to resolve a body into its parts or elements.

Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.