auto-destructn.
/ˌɔːtə(ʊ)dᵻˈstrʌkt/, U.S. /ˌɔdədəˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɔdədiˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɔdoʊdəˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɔdoʊdiˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɑdədəˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɑdədiˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɑdoʊdəˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɑdoʊdiˈstrək(t)/ The process or result of something destroying itself; a function, setting, etc., which brings this about. Chiefly figurative. Cf. self-destruct n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > [noun] > self-destruction
self-murdera1631
felon-de-se1648
felo-de-se1678
self-destructiveness1733
self-combustion1837
auto-destruction1888
self-liquidation1928
self-destruct1962
auto-destruct1968
1968 New York 16 Dec. 60/1 Unless all those animals are on monthly auto-destruct, you should have a ve-e-e-ry interesting house by mid-summer.
1977 Economist 31 Dec. 97/3 In this book he coarsens his darkly brilliant portrait of a close-knit group locked into auto-destruct by introducing the menace of commercial exploitation.
1998 R. Ray Certain Age 93 It felt like the countdown to autodestruct they have on Star Trek.
2002 L. A. Rickels Nazi Psychoanal. II. 220 The analytic breakthrough reversed itself and went into autodestruct on all fronts.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
auto-destructv.
/ˌɔːtə(ʊ)dᵻˈstrʌkt/, U.S. /ˌɔdədəˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɔdədiˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɔdoʊdəˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɔdoʊdiˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɑdədəˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɑdədiˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɑdoʊdəˈstrək(t)/, /ˌɑdoʊdiˈstrək(t)/ intransitive. Of a thing: to destroy itself automatically, esp. when preset to do so; = self-destruct v. 1. Also figurative and in extended use.Recorded earliest in attributive use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > destroy [verb (intransitive)] > destroy oneself
to cut one's own throat1565
auto-destruct1963
self-destruct1968
1963 S. Kubrick et al. Dr. Strangelove (Univ. Arizona MS. screenplay PN1997 .D627 1963) 60b I think the auto-destruct mechanism got hit and blew itself up.
1970 New Leader 27 Apr. 20/2 Local Anaesthetic is an enormously clever piece of work to be sure, but like those ‘fuzzy fictions’, it has a tendency to autodestruct in the reader's memory.
1980 Newsweek 1 Sept. 18/3 Reagan penned in a few lines memorializing the war in Vietnam as ‘a noble cause’... The result..encouraged his enemies to believe that he may yet auto-destruct.
1985 Times 4 Jan. 10/7 The city that perfected the dry Martini has yet to invent..lavatory paper that does not auto-destruct on contact.
1998 C. Mims When we Die (1999) iv. 85 You could still argue that the best arrangement, from nature's point of view, would be for people to autodestruct at the age of, say, seventy.
2004 M. Windrow Last Valley xii. 428 The accurate ‘slant’ range of the Russian 37mm gun was in fact more than 9,000ft and its shells did not auto-destruct until they had travelled another mile.
Compounds
attributive. Designating a device which destroys itself, esp. when preset to do so; designating a switch, mechanism, etc., which initiates a process of self-destruction. Also figurative.Some examples may be interpreted as compounds of auto-destruct n.
ΚΠ
1963 S. Kubrick et al. Dr. Strangelove (Univ. Arizona MS. screenplay PN1997 .D627 1963) 60b I think the auto-destruct mechanism got hit and blew itself up.
1970 Times 22 July 21/2 Auto-destruct film cassettes, that give only one private showing, are on test-market in the United States.
1971 New Scientist 26 Aug. 452/1 The cell's ‘auto-destruct’ pack, the lysosome.
1980 Aviation Week 23 June 16/1 Engine D..developed a combustion chamber pressure oscillation 4.4 sec. after ignition that led to the activation of the vehicle's auto-destruct mechanisms about 104 sec. later.
1983 Listener 16 June 4/1 Labour's leaders, Denis Healey in particular, became adept at pressing the auto-destruct button.
2005 Sci. Fiction Stud. 32 273 Freya sets the auto-destruct switch on the ship and steps in front of the laser beam to restart time by her own death.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
<
n.1968v.1963