raze
\ reyz \, verb;
1.to tear down; demolish; level to the ground: to raze a row of old buildings .
2.to shave or scrape off.
Quotes:
They razed the building to the ground, then ran a wooden footbridge over the foundation to the dock, where the boats of the new ferry began to land on July 27.
-- T.J. Stiles, "The First Tycoon," 2009
Together, they’ll stop the nefarious plot to raze Celesteville, and turn it into a luxury resort.
-- Meredith Blake, "Babar on the Big Screen," The New Yorker , Aug. 4, 2010
Origin:
Raze comes from the Middle French verb meaning "to shave," raser , a variant on the Latin rādere , "to scrape." It entered English in the late 1300s.
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