I.v. a., to tear asunder, overthrow, demolish, destroy (class. —cf.: deleo, diluo, exstinguo, everto, demolior).
I. Prop.: “maceriam,” Ter. Ad. 5, 7, 10: “urbem,” Cic. Inv. 1, 40, 73; id. Q. Fr. 1, 1, 8, § 25; Suet. Caes. 54; Ov. M. 12, 551 et saep.: “muros,” Nep. Con. 4 fin.: “templa,” Suet. Calig. 60: “arcum circi,” id. Ner. 25: “monumentum,” id. Dom. 8; Hor. C. 3, 30, 4: fores ira, Prop. 4 (5), 9, 14. “arbusta,” Verg. A. 10, 363: “regna Priami,” Prop. 2, 28, 54 (3, 26, 8 M.); cf. id. 4 (5), 1, 113 et saep.— Absol.: “diruit, aedificat,” Hor. Ep. 1, 1, 100; cf.: “nova diruunt, alia aedificant,” Sall. C. 20, 12.—Hyperbol.: caelum, Auct. B. Hisp. 42 fin.—
II. Transf.: “agmina vasto impetu,” to drive asunder, scatter, Hor. C. 4, 14, 30: “omnia Bacchanalia,” i. e. to abolish, Liv. 39, 18.—And in milit. lang.: aere dirutus, qs. ruined in pay, i. e. deprived of pay; said of a soldier whose pay was stopped as a punishment, Varr. ap. Non. 532, 4 sq.; cf. Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 13 Zumpt; cf. “also beyond the milit. sphere, and without aere, of a bankrupt: homo diruptus dirutusque,” both ruptured and bankrupt, Cic. Phil. 13, 12.
