demolish

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
demolish /dɪˈmɒlɪʃ/

▶verb

• 1 pull or knock down (a building).

• 2 comprehensively refute or defeat.

• 3 humorous eat up (food) quickly.

– derivatives
demolisher noun.

– origin C16: from Fr. démoliss-, lengthened stem of démolir, from L. demoliri, from de- (expressing reversal) + moliri ‘construct’.