disintegrate

verb

Etymology: Recorded since 1785, from dis- + integrate.

1. To undo the integrity of; to break into parts.

   “Marlites […] are not disintegrated by exposure to the atmosphere, at least in six years.”

2. To undo the integrity of; to break into parts.

   “There is a Latvian gentleman named Theodore Nemor living at White Friars Mansions, Hampstead, who claims to have invented a machine of a most extraordinary character which is capable of disintegrating any object placed within its sphere of influence.”

3. To fall apart; to break up into parts.

   “Hence they are eloquent, not of the present, disintegrating society and psyche, but of the unquenched source through which society is reborn.”

   “But Schneider has wantonly misstaged Lucky's monologue: instead of a recitation by rote of a travestied history of Western philosophy and religion that gradually disintegrates into chaos, we get a choppy set of starts and stops, as of a jalopy that cannot get into proper gear.”