[a. Fr. annihilation, 14th c. anichilacion, f. L. adnihilāt-: see ANNIHIL and -ATION. Not in Cotgr., 1611.]
1. The action or process of reducing to nothing, or of blotting out of existence. a. materially.
a. 1638. Mede, Paraphr. 2 Pet. iii. 7. A destruction of the whole creature it self by utter annihilation.
1777. Priestley, Matt. & Spir., vii. I. 79. Let any person … suppose the annihilation of all matter.
1856. Dove, Logic Chr. Faith, IV. i. § 1. 162. Creation and annihilation are absolute changes.
b. Theol. The destruction of soul as well as body.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Christian writers, who, shocked with the horrible prospect of eternal torments, have taken refuge in the system of Annihilation…. This Annihilation makes what they call the second death.
1876. Mozley, Univ. Serm., iii. 61. When reason itself has opened a view into immortality, to put up contentedly with annihilation,—what a dreadful stupefaction of the human spirit!
c. Of conditions and circumstances: The bringing to an end; total abrogation.
1763. Erskine, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 504, IV. 470. A total annihilation of Regal Authority.
1769. Burke, Pres. State Nat., Wks. II. 23. The annihilation of our trade, the ruin of our credit.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 321. The annihilation of the credit of the paper bills.
d. Of collective and complex bodies: The action of destroying their combined or organized existence; effectual destruction.
1796. Ld. Sheffield, in Ld. Auckland’s Corr. (1862), III. 358. The annihilation of Jourdan’s army is a great event.
1872. Yeats, Growth Comm., 54. Their policy was, therefore, simply that of conquest, not annihilation.
2. The state of nothingness resulting from blotting out of existence.
1677. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, II. IV. 517. Cut off the dependence of a Creature from its Creator and what an … Annihilation would it fal into?
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. 183. All nature would languish and fall into annihilation.
1851. Mariotti, Italy, in 1848, i. 8. Political annihilation had not yet brought with it mental prostration and degeneracy.
