本文经授权转载自微信公众号：田间小站
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
