raze
RAYZverbMeaning to tear down completely, all the way to the ground
Memory hook RAZE is the opposite of RAISE. On one lot the crew raises a new house; on the next lot they tear the old one flat. To raze a building is the opposite of raising it.
The city plans to raze the crumbling old mill next spring.
In context Rather than repair the leaning barn, the farmers decided to raze it; by evening nothing was left but a flat patch of dirt where it had stood.
Similar tear down, level, flatten, knock down
Opposite raise, build, erect
From older English rase, “to scrape, to shave off.”