teardown

[ tair-doun ]

noun
  1. a taking apart; disassembly.

  2. a house or other building that is purchased with the intention of tearing it down and replacing it with another, more expensive structure.

Origin of teardown

1
1925–30; noun use of verb phrase tear down

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use teardown in a sentence

  • I'll tear down those mining shacks, float them down the river and sell them as lumber.

  • They would tear down the very walls, if we were to open fire on them.

    Pharaoh's Broker | Ellsworth Douglass
  • To-morrow morning we'll take it upon ourselves to tear down that door that's sealed up.

    The Pony Rider Boys in Texas | Frank Gee Patchin
  • Had they the resolution to do this, not one of us would escape alive, for they would tear down the house.

    Wild Western Scenes | John Beauchamp Jones
  • I shall recruit my regiment from the "Invincible Empire," and I shall tear down and let them reconstruct if they can.

    The Broken Sword | Dennison Worthington

British Dictionary definitions for tear down

tear down

/ (tɛə) /


verb
  1. (tr, adverb) to destroy or demolish: to tear a wall down; to tear down an argument

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Idioms and Phrases with teardown

teardown

Demolish, take apart, as in They tore down the old tenements, or He loved to tear down old engines. [Early 1600s]

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.