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
  • By not acting, the West would be relying on the group to self-destruct.
    — Robin Simcox, Foreign Affairs, 15 Sep. 2014
  • This review will now self-destruct in five, four, three, two….
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 5 July 2023
  • When that happens, the craft will be ordered to turn to expose itself to the Sun, causing it to self-destruct.
    — David Szondy, New Atlas, 2 Jan. 2025
  • This led to the engines shutting down early and the self-destruct system ending the mission.
    — George Dvorsky / Gizmodo, Quartz, 27 Feb. 2024
  • Again, this is where a lot of people get trapped, either out of boredom or a compulsion to self-destruct.
    — Olivia Petter, Vogue, 1 Apr. 2025
  • 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
  • Then around Christmas in 2013, Kinch’s career began to self-destruct.
    — Joshua Kaplan, ProPublica, 4 Jan. 2025
  • 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
  • When these spores germinate, the bacteria eat away at the plastic, causing it to self-destruct.
    — Michael Dennis, Forbes, 4 Mar. 2025
  • It was not immediately known whether the spacecraft’s self-destruct system had kicked in to blow it up.
    — Marcia Dunn, Los Angeles Times, 7 Mar. 2025
  • 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
  • This week, the FBI obtained a court order that allowed the bureau to send a self-destruct command to the software on infected machines.
    — Lily Hay Newman, WIRED, 18 Jan. 2025
  • 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
  • Another video from the same location shows the truck used to transport the drones on fire after what appears to be an explosion designed to self-destruct the truck.
    — Benjamin Brown, CNN Money, 3 June 2025
  • As his paranoia takes hold, the God of Gods — seeing signs everywhere — starts to dangerously self-destruct.
    — Ryan Schwartz, TVLine, 28 June 2024
  • 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
  • If the cell quickly self-destructs, that will prevent the virus from spreading throughout the body.
    — Viviane Callier, Scientific American, 20 Oct. 2025
  • Halfmann found it a bit unsettling to think that so many cells carry these self-destruct buttons just waiting to be pushed.
    — Jon Hamilton, NPR, 16 Oct. 2025

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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