How to Use destructive in a Sentence

destructive

adjective
  • The school is concerned about the destructive behavior of a few students.
  • It was one of the most destructive storms in recent memory.
  • She argued that the law was destructive of personal liberties.
  • The most destructive to me are my tendency to live in the past and to hold grudges.
    — Amy Dickinson, Detroit Free Press, 23 Apr. 2022
  • The most destructive to me are my tendency to live in the past and to hold grudges.
    — Amy Dickinson, Chicago Tribune, 22 Apr. 2022
  • The most destructive to me are my tendency to live in the past and to hold grudges.
    — Amy Dickinson, oregonlive, 23 Apr. 2022
  • The most destructive to me are my tendency to live in the past and to hold grudges.
    — cleveland, 23 Apr. 2022
  • And a lot of times the snap judgments were very destructive.
    — Natasha Pearlman, Glamour, 6 May 2022
  • And that drought that came on the heels of some of the most destructive floods Europe has ever seen.
    — Jennifer Gray, CNN, 2 Nov. 2022
  • The whole, nasty cocktail, destructive of soul, mind, and body.
    — Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 24 Mar. 2023
  • Over roughly two hours, the horses wove a destructive path across some 6 miles of the city.
    — Rachel Treisman, NPR, 24 Apr. 2024
  • The film, written with Jon Spaihts, picks up hours after the destructive events of the first film.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 21 Feb. 2024
  • Some of the sideshows, as they are also called, have been deadly and destructive.
    — Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, 2 Nov. 2024
  • The trend is destructive, as a pair of events this week illustrate.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 16 Dec. 2022
  • As a result, the legacy in many ways is very destructive.
    — Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 1 Feb. 2024
  • Their lives were ripped apart in one of the deadliest and most destructive wars of the 21st century.
    — Samar Abu Elouf Samar Abu Elouf, New York Times, 4 Feb. 2024
  • The men are dopey and destructive; the women clever and thwarted, with all the good lines and the truly depressing fates.
    — Parul Sehgal, The New Yorker, 12 June 2023
  • The spilling of the tea propelled the dissolution of the bonds between Britain and her colonies, and led to seven years of destructive war.
    — The Editors, National Review, 16 Dec. 2023
  • As the eye moved inland, destructive winds shredded signs and rooftops.
    — Daniel Kozin, The Christian Science Monitor, 30 Aug. 2023
  • Given the history of the destructive powers of wildfires, what took place in The Dalles the past two days could have been worse.
    — Thallman, oregonlive, 15 June 2023
  • But high oil prices are self-destructive, and not likely to linger at that level for long.
    — Tim McDonnell, Quartz, 15 Mar. 2022
  • That is a marked contrast from some destructive fires to hit the region in recent years.
    — Grace Toohey, Los Angeles Times, 10 Dec. 2024
  • The size and strength of the hurricane and its wind fields, especially the inner core with the most destructive winds.
    — Dinah Voyles Pulver, USA TODAY, 5 Sep. 2023
  • Rauf decided to train Ali and send him back to London to lead the most destructive attack on the West since 2001.
    — Kevin O’Kelly, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 Feb. 2022
  • To make matters worse, the dog has also been destructive.
    — Harriette Cole, The Mercury News, 25 Nov. 2024
  • Even more destructive are surface waves, which move at about the same speed as S-waves or maybe a bit slower.
    — WIRED, 10 Feb. 2023
  • These destructive pests can lay waste to an entire patch of squash in short order.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 23 Apr. 2025
  • This is the destructive game that Trump is playing, and his lawyers seem happy (or at least willing) to go along with it.
    — John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2023
  • The storm threatened to unleash destructive winds near where the eye crashes ashore, flash floods and a dangerous storm surge, forecasters said.
    — Luis Alberto Cruz, Chicago Tribune, 19 June 2025
  • The experience does acknowledge the destructive impact humans have had on the planet.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 20 June 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'destructive.' 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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