Finnish

(index hä)

Verb

hävittää

1. (transitive) To lose, misplace.
2. (transitive) To destroy completely, demolish, wipe out, annihilate, decimate.
3. (transitive) To kill, liquidate, rub out, bump off, put down, put to sleep (usually insects, more rarely mammals).

   Tämän suihkeen pitäisi hävittää hyttyset talosta.

   This spray should put down the mosquitoes from the house.

4. (transitive) To exterminate, annihilate (people).

   Stalinin hallinnon arvellaan hävittäneen miljoonia toisinajattelijoita.

   The Stalin government is thought to have exterminated millions of dissidents.

5. (transitive) To devastate, lay waste to, ravage.

   Tapaninpäivän tsunami vuonna 2004 hävitti tuhansia kyliä Kaakkois-Aasian rannikolla.

   Thousands of villages on the Southeast Asian coast were devastated by the Boxing day tsunami in 2004. (or, literally: The B. d. t. devastated...)

6. (transitive) To waste, squander, blow.

   Yritys onnistui hävittämään miljardeja euroja virheinvestointeihin.

   The company managed to waste billions of euros in mistaken investments.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (to lose, misplace): hukata

Derived terms

• nouns: hävittäjä, hävitys