Definition

To pulverize means to reduce to dust or powder by crushing or grinding something into small pieces.

Pronunciation

US English

UK English


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Excerpts from News Articles

The word pesto literally means “crush” in Genoese. In this case, basil, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, pine kernels, garlic cloves, coarse salt and extra virgin olive oil, pulverized together in a Genoese marble mortar. They combine to create a dense, creamy sauce that smells of a Mediterranean garden and cries out to be stirred through a bowl of handmade trofie pasta twists.

Logo 2021-02-17 CNN News

Ukrainian officials say the city is now largely lying in ruins, reducing any value it could have for Russia whereas for Kyiv, it's a part of Ukraine. "I think it's more about the symbolic value than the actual strategic value," Yuriy Sak, an advisor in Ukraine's defense ministry, told CNBC. "It's not a big city ... by now it's ruins, it's pulverized . There are a couple of thousand people living in underground shelters but it's a deserted city, there's only constant artillery and street-to-street fighting.

Logo 2023-03-08 CNBC

The gun’s brutal efficiency: The AR-15’s mechanics, which allow shooters to easily fire bullets at a high velocity in rapid succession, make the weapon lethal and destructive. When the bullets penetrate the body, they create a blast effect that blows up organs and pulverizes bones. The weapon’s power magnifies the impact of gun violence, both because of the number of victims and, for survivors, the long-lasting effects on physical and mental health.

Logo 2023-03-27 The Washington Post

Whether you order the traditional pork version (dubbed Bao Bei Bao) or the veg variation (the Tofu-rrific Bao), your chosen protein will be garnished with cilantro, pulverized peanuts (supplemented with sugar) and pickled mustard greens tempered in a hot wok. You can see how the architecture of gua bao would appeal to the engineer in Hsieh.

Logo 2023-04-10 The Washington Post

And even as they were decrying cannibals in the New World as savages, Europeans were routinely consuming human parts as medicinal treatment. Followers of 16th-century Swiss physician Paracelsus, for example, sought to cure dysentery with medicines that contained powdered human skulls, and in 17th-century England pulverized mummies were used in treatments for epilepsy and stomachaches. In some cases, not just any mummy would do: one concoction called for the body of a redheaded man who had died from hanging.


“It literally can pulverize bones, it can shatter your liver and it can provide this blast effect,” said Joseph Sakran, a gunshot survivor who advocates for gun violence prevention and a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Logo 2023-04-18 The Washington Post

Following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban, Afghanistan had less than 50 miles of paved roads in the entire country. A 2,000-mile national highway network connecting major cities had been pulverized by decades of war and neglect.

Logo 2023-04-20 CGTN

“What I saw on the CAT scan very quickly was a third to 40 percent of his liver was just gone. It was pulverized . In addition, his right kidney no longer existed,” Sarani said.

Logo 2023-04-21 The Washington Post

In addition to the fire, wildlife officials said in a statement, large concrete chunks and sheets of stainless steel were among the objects found thousands of feet away. Officials also found that a plume of pulverized concrete deposited material 6.5 miles northwest of the launchpad.

Logo 2023-04-26 The Washington Post

The FWS said, "Impacts from the launch include numerous large concrete chunks, stainless steel sheets, metal and other objects hurled thousands of feet away along with a plume cloud of pulverized concrete that deposited material up to 6.5 miles northwest of the pad site."

Logo 2023-04-26 CNBC

The shattering force of last Thursday's launch in South Texas sent a cloud of pulverized concrete raining over a small town nearby, federal regulators said, raising fresh questions about the environmental impact of ramped-up launch operations at the site.

Logo 2023-04-27 Reuters

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) documented that the debris cloud deposited material as far as six-and-a-half miles north of the launch pad. The agency said in a statement that the debris cloud was made of pulverized concrete.

Logo 2023-04-27 NPR

At a terrible party in someone’s beautifully decorated home, some soon-to-be professors were talking about how much reading and writing they were able to do at the “book mill,” which sounded like a place where books were pulverized . I didn’t know how to drive and the bus would take two hours, so I convinced some poor grad student to drive me the nineteen miles to the Montague Bookmill.

Logo 2023-04-28 Literary Hub

All the food that you throw in the bin — be it scraps from food prep or bites of leftover meals — can do a lot better than go in the garbage. Using Vitamix’s new Eco 5 FoodCycler, you can pulverize up to five liters of food into a nutrient-rich soil “amendment” that’ll work as powdered, fast-acting plant food for your outdoor garden or indoor houseplants. Read more about this new FoodCycler’s predecessor here.

Logo 2023-04-28 CNN News

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also coordinating with the FAA. In a statement this week, it said that the rocket, which has 33 first-stage engines and stands nearly 400 feet tall, sent “numerous large concrete chunks, stainless steel sheets, metal and other objects ... thousands of feet away along with a plume cloud of pulverized concrete that deposited material up to 6.5 miles northwest of the pad site.”

Logo 2023-04-29 The Washington Post

“Numerous large concrete chunks, stainless steel sheets, metal and other objects hurled thousands of feet away along with a plume cloud of pulverized concrete that deposited material up to 6.5 miles northwest of the pad site,” according to the statement. Locals in Port Isabel reported a strange dust settling over the community after launch.

Logo 2023-04-29 CNN News

Photos of the aftermath have shown the violent result of the Super Heavy booster's engines. A report from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the launch flung concrete and metal "thousands of feet away" and created a cloud of dust and pulverized concrete that fell as far as 6.5 miles from the launch site.

Logo 2023-04-29 CNBC

The blast also ignited a 3.5-acre (1.4-hectare) brush fire and sent a cloud of pulverized concrete drifting 6.5 miles (10.5 km) to the northwest and raining down over tidal flats and the nearby town of Port Isabel, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Logo 2023-05-01 Reuters

SpaceX's Starship Super Heavy test flight on April 20 blew up the company's launchpad, hurling chunks of concrete and metal sheets thousands of feet away into sensitive habitat, spreading particulate matter including pulverized concrete for miles, and sparking a 3.5-acre fire on state park lands near the launch site.

Logo 2023-05-01 CNBC

At such a moment, the monarchy acts as an emotional support institution. Its very antiquity is its appeal; its rootedness in the past is the whole point. In an age of pulverizing volatility and low national self-esteem, the coronation will embody a mystical sense of continuity and a spirit of permanence upon which the British are more dependent than they might care to admit.

Logo 2023-05-02 The Washington Post

Today, tulip bulbs can be dried, pulverized and added to grains or modified to obtain flour to make bread.

Logo 2023-05-03 The Conversation

When SpaceX's newest rocket, Starship, lifted off last month, employees cheered as they watched the video feed. They kept cheering as it pulverized the concrete slab under its launch pad, as one of its engines appeared to explode a few seconds into flight, and even when it somersaulted out of control, before disintegrating over the Gulf of Mexico.

Logo 2023-05-05 NPR

Maximiliano Herrera, a climate historian who tracks temperature records, tweeted that the episode is “one of the most brutal heat event[s] the world has ever witnessed,” bluntly writing that “records are being pulverized .” In addition to Laos and Vietnam, widespread record heat is gripping Cambodia, Thailand and parts of China.

Logo 2023-05-08 The Washington Post