UBS Dictionary of the Greek New Testament

Sense 1: to ruin, to destroy, destruction

Semantic entry: 20.31

Semantic domains: Violence, Harm, Destroy, Kill

Subdomains: Destroy

Definition: to destroy or to cause the destruction of persons, objects, or institutions

Notes: In a number of languages it is difficult to find a general term for ‘destruction.’ What has often happened is the extension of meaning from a more specific type of reference, for example, ‘to smash,’ to a more generic meaning of ‘to destroy,’ and whether one understands the specific or more generic meaning depends largely upon the context. Accordingly, in RV ACT 8:3 · LV ACT 8:3 · Read together ACT 8:3 one may find a figurative usage of a term meaning ‘to smash’ (though understood in a more generic sense), for example, ‘Saul then worked in order to smash the church.’

Sense 2: to not obtain, to fail to get

Semantic entry: 57.67

Semantic domains: Possess, Transfer, Exchange

Subdomains: Take, Obtain, Gain, Lose

Definition: to fail to obtain a valued object

Sense 3: to lose

Semantic entry: 57.68

Semantic domains: Possess, Transfer, Exchange

Subdomains: Take, Obtain, Gain, Lose

Definition: to lose something which one already possesses

Notes: ἀπόλλυμι in the sense of losing what one already possesses may be analyzed basically as ‘not to have that which one has previously had.’ There is, however, no suggestion in ἀπόλλυμι[c] as to the particular type of circumstances involved in the loss, whether, for example, from neglect, by accident, or as the result of some external force.|It is also possible to interpret ἀπόλλυμι in RV LUK 15:8 · LV LUK 15:8 · Read together LUK 15:8 as ‘to not know where something is’ (see 27.29: ἀπόλλυμι).

Sense 4: to lose, to no longer know where something is

Semantic entry: 27.29

Semantic domains: Learn

Subdomains: Learn the Location of Something

Definition: to become unaware of the location of something{N:001}

Notes: It is also possible to interpret ἀπόλλυμι in RV LUK 15:4 · LV LUK 15:4 · Read together LUK 15:4 as meaning a loss of possession (see 57.68: ἀπόλλυμι)

Sense 5: to experience the loss of life, to die

Semantic entry: 23.114

Semantic domains: Physiological Processes and States

Subdomains: Live, Die

Definition: an idiom, literally: to suffer the destruction of one’s life, or: to have one’s life destroyed

Notes: In RV MAT 10:39 · LV MAT 10:39 · Read together MAT 10:39 some scholars see in the use of ψυχή a reference not to physical life but to a particular quality of life. This is difficult to justify except in terms of the total context, and it may be that in RV MAT 10:39 · LV MAT 10:39 · Read together MAT 10:39 there is a degree of intentional ambiguity with respect to the meaning of ψυχή.

Collocations: ἀπόλλυμι τὴν ψυχήν

Sense 6: to die, to perish

Semantic entry: 23.106

Semantic domains: Physiological Processes and States

Subdomains: Live, Die

Definition: to die, with the implication of ruin and destruction

Notes: It is possible to understand ἀπόλλυμαι in RV LUK 15:17 · LV LUK 15:17 · Read together LUK 15:17 as involving a measure of exaggeration.

Forms: ἀπόλλυμαι

Sense 7: to cease to exist, to no longer exist, to come to an end, to disappear

Semantic entry: 13.96

Semantic domains: Be, Become, Exist, Happen

Subdomains: Exist

Definition: to cease to exist, with a possible implication of violent means

Forms: ἀπόλλυμαι

Sense 8: to be lost, to perish

Semantic entry: 21.32

Semantic domains: Danger, Risk, Safe, Save

Subdomains: Save in a Religious Sense

Definition: to be lost, in the religious or spiritual sense

Forms: ἀπόλλυμαι