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raze 英 [reɪz] 美 [reɪz]
TOEFL SAT GRE
外刊例句
A former home to 70,000 people has been razed in many parts to rubble.
一个曾经容纳7万人居住的家园的许多区域被夷为废墟。
——《经济学人》
But for over 40 years the site has survived multiple attempts to raze and redevelop it.
但40多年来，该场地在经历了多次将其夷平和重建的尝试之后，幸存了下来。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[verb] completely destroy (a building, town, or other site)
[动词] 彻底摧毁（建筑物、城镇或其他地点）
深入解读
Raze 是一个在拼写上与常见词 maze, haze, daze 以及小站（微信公众号：田间小站）推送过的 gaze 有着相同结尾的单词，同时也是一个在发音上容易与熟词 raise 相混淆的单词。
该词源自拉丁语 radere （刮掉、削去），16世纪40年代经古法语 raser （刮掉、削去）进入英语后即用来表示“彻底摧毁、把……夷为平地”，常使用被动语态，强调将建筑物、城镇等地面以上的部分彻底抹平，使之与地面齐平，比如：
临时建筑最近被全部拆除了。
Temporary buildings were recently razed.
经年的战争给这座城市带来的不亚于灭顶之灾。
Years of war culminated in nothing less than a brutal razing of the city.
名著用例
After having long been in danger of my life at the hands of the village, I have been seized, with great violence and indignity, and brought a long journey on foot to Paris. On the road I have suffered a great deal. Nor is that all; my house has been destroyed—razed to the ground.
在长期冒着被村里的人杀死的危险之后我终于被抓住了，遭到了残酷的虐待和侮辱，然后被押着长途步行到了巴黎，沿途备受折磨。这还不够，我的房子也给毁掉了——夷为平地。
出自英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯（Charles Dickens）创作的长篇历史小说《双城记》（A Tale of Two Cities）。
同近义词
dismantle: take (a machine or structure) to pieces
demolish: pull or knock down (a building)
flatten: raze (a building or settlement) to the ground