destructive

adj

Etymology: From Middle English destructyve, from Middle French destructif, from Latin dēstrūctīvus, from past participle of dēstruere (“to tear down, destroy”) + -īvus.

1. Causing destruction; damaging.

   “The pastures are filled with gay political drop-outs, persons of reasonable intent who found the scene personally destructive.”

   “After rescuing his estranged daughter in the last film, Live Free Or Die Hard, Willis heads to Russia to rescue his estranged son (Jai Courtney), a CIA agent on a mission to protect a whistleblower (Sebastian Koch) from a corrupt government official (Sergei Kolesnikov) with no shortage of destructive resources at his disposal.”

2. Causing breakdown or disassembly.

   “Catabolism is a destructive metabolism that involves the breakdown of molecules and release of energy.”

3. Lossy; causing irreversible change.

   “Blurring an image is a destructive operation, but rotating an image is not.”