disintegrator

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a fictional weapon or device that destroys matter by breaking it apart

   Slim feared that the visitor's strange object was a disintegrator gun.

2. 2
   noun

   a machine that breaks solid material into small pieces or powder

   The recycling plant fed the brittle waste into a mechanical disintegrator.

3. 3
   noun

   a person or thing that causes a system or group to fall apart

   The critic described corruption as a disintegrator of public trust.

Formed from disintegrate plus the agent suffix -or. Disintegrate combines dis-, 'apart,' with integrate, ultimately from Latin integer, 'whole or untouched.' The science-fiction weapon sense turns the literal idea of breaking a whole into parts into an imagined technology.

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