How to Use self-destruct in a Sentence

self-destruct

verb
  • The problem caused the spacecraft to self-destruct in space.
    Aashna Shah, Fortune, 26 Feb. 2024
  • This review will now self-destruct in five, four, three, two….
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 5 July 2023
  • Then the Knights self-destructed in the face of Sierra Canyon’s pressure defense.
    Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 27 Jan. 2024
  • If stocks are low, Moscow could send swarms of self-destructing drones.
    David L. Stern, Washington Post, 10 Oct. 2023
  • During the first test in April, the rocket was forced to self-destruct about three minutes after liftoff when the boosters failed to separate.
    Meredith Deliso, ABC News, 18 Nov. 2023
  • Los Alamitos self-destructed in the fourth quarter with penalties on a key drive.
    Eric Sondheimer, Los Angeles Times, 11 Nov. 2023
  • What the buyer didn’t know was that Banksy’s portrait was set to self-destruct by being shredded through its own frame as soon as a winning bid was confirmed.
    Byryan Hogg, Fortune, 19 Sep. 2023
  • On what would be Herbert’s final drive, the Chargers actually moved the ball, only for them to self-destruct.
    Dylan Hernández, Los Angeles Times, 11 Dec. 2023
  • The explosion was likely the result of a self-destruct command issued by SpaceX ground control.
    Rachel Cormack, Robb Report, 20 Apr. 2023
  • But sacrificing sleep and well-being will only cause you to self-destruct.
    Allbusiness, Forbes, 8 Mar. 2023
  • Many of the renegade directors self-destructed in a blaze of coke and ego, or joined the counter-revolution of the blockbuster eighties.
    Michael Schulman, The New Yorker, 30 Oct. 2023
  • Ukraine’s Air Force said Moscow launched 35 self-destructing drones, all of which were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
    David L. Stern, Washington Post, 2 Jan. 2024
  • The smaller, more common self-destructing drones like those flown by Private Yevhen cost a few hundred dollars.
    Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, 8 May 2023
  • After the hatchlings finally emerge and swim off into the darkness of the sea, the mothers, as many female octopuses, may self-destruct.
    Tara Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, 31 Aug. 2023
  • About three minutes after SpaceX's Starship rocket launched Thursday morning, the boosters failed to separate, and it was forced to self-destruct.
    Steve Ganyard, ABC News, 20 Apr. 2023
  • The once faithful servant was ejected from the chariot just before the wax lynchpins gave way, and the chariot self-destructed.
    Mike Lynch, Twin Cities, 28 Jan. 2024
  • The Starship upper stage reached space before self-destructing downrange over the Gulf of Mexico.
    Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 4 Jan. 2024
  • The self-destruct system kicked in, and Starship blew itself up, according to SpaceX’s commentators, who were narrating the livestream.
    Marina Koren, The Atlantic, 18 Nov. 2023
  • Rather than exploring Venus, the vehicle was ordered to self-destruct shortly after liftoff.
    Allison Morrow, CNN, 14 Feb. 2024
  • When researchers apply a magnetic field, the nanotubes spin, damaging cancer cells and causing some to self-destruct.
    IEEE Spectrum, 24 Apr. 2023
  • Observers of the American scene had long since forecast that an independent America would self-destruct in civil wars.
    Time, 3 July 2023
  • Russia, meanwhile, sent 30 self-destructing drones and a ballistic missile raining down across Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said Tuesday.
    Abigail Hauslohner, Washington Post, 19 Sep. 2023
  • Newer cluster munitions have been designed to reduce the dud-rate and/or implement a backup self-destruct system.
    Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 7 July 2023
  • Shortly thereafter, a self-destruct mechanism activated to blow up the rocket.
    Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 18 Nov. 2023
  • The vehicle’s flight termination, or self-destruct, feature was triggered, exploding the spacecraft and booster over the Gulf of Mexico.
    Jackie Wattles, CNN, 29 Apr. 2023
  • Moscow’s accusation against Washington came several hours after Russia launched a wave of self-destructing drones against Kyiv and the southern port city of Odessa overnight.
    David L. Stern, Washington Post, 4 May 2023
  • The Starship, designed to one day carry crew and cargo to Mars, faced several problems, including the failure of its engines, causing the SpaceX team to self-destruct the rocket using the flight termination system.
    Eden Villalovas, Washington Examiner, 1 May 2023
  • An out-of-control rocket full of highly flammable fuel is a very dangerous object, so to prevent any harm, SpaceX engineers triggered the self-destruct mechanism and blew up the entire rocket over the Gulf of Mexico.
    Wendy Whitman Cobb, Fortune, 21 Apr. 2023
  • Maybe the real Iron Claw was [dramatic pause] his own suffocating relentlessness around family, which caused virtually all of the boys to self-destruct.
    David Fear, Rolling Stone, 20 Dec. 2023
  • These self-destructing devices can circle around targets for hours before attacking.
    Roberto J. González, The Conversation, 23 Feb. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'self-destruct.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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