"drive a stake through its heart" meaning in English

{
  "etymology_text": "Refers to a common way of killing vampires in fiction.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "drives a stake through its heart",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driving a stake through its heart",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drove a stake through its heart",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driven a stake through its heart",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "drives a stake through its heart",
        "2": "driving a stake through its heart",
        "3": "drove a stake through its heart",
        "4": "driven a stake through its heart"
      },
      "expansion": "drive a stake through its heart (third-person singular simple present drives a stake through its heart, present participle driving a stake through its heart, simple past drove a stake through its heart, past participle driven a stake through its heart)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1984, Peter Benjaminson, Death in the Afternoon: America's Newspaper Giants Struggle for Survival, Andrews, McMeel & Parker",
          "text": "The Chandlers also were interested in retaining the family fortune, not squandering it, and the Mirror-News was losing $2 million a year. If, the Chandlers thought, they could kill the Mirror-News and drive a stake through its heart, they would be much better off.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Fred Siegel, Urban Society, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, page 125",
          "text": "\"You can't reform ODOT,\" he says wearily, \"you can only drive a stake through its heart.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations, Final Review of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (Treaty Doc. 105-28): Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session, October 7, 1999, Volume 4, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 28",
          "text": "We hear great debate about how this is a bad treaty and we should defeat it and drive a stake through its heart, but what, then, should we do?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means, Impediments to Job Creation: Hearing Before the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, First Session, March 30, 2011, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 116",
          "text": "We can't tinker with this tax code monstrosity or try to reform around the edges. The only thing we can do with this hideous beast is kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it, and hope that it never rises again to terrorize the American people.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "get rid of, destroy permanently or stop talking about"
      ],
      "id": "en-drive_a_stake_through_its_heart-en-verb-GSb2xAbj",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) get rid of, destroy permanently or stop talking about"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drive a stake through its heart"
}

{
  "etymology_text": "Refers to a common way of killing vampires in fiction.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "drives a stake through its heart",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driving a stake through its heart",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "drove a stake through its heart",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "driven a stake through its heart",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "drives a stake through its heart",
        "2": "driving a stake through its heart",
        "3": "drove a stake through its heart",
        "4": "driven a stake through its heart"
      },
      "expansion": "drive a stake through its heart (third-person singular simple present drives a stake through its heart, present participle driving a stake through its heart, simple past drove a stake through its heart, past participle driven a stake through its heart)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English idioms",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with placeholder \"it\"",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1984, Peter Benjaminson, Death in the Afternoon: America's Newspaper Giants Struggle for Survival, Andrews, McMeel & Parker",
          "text": "The Chandlers also were interested in retaining the family fortune, not squandering it, and the Mirror-News was losing $2 million a year. If, the Chandlers thought, they could kill the Mirror-News and drive a stake through its heart, they would be much better off.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1999, Fred Siegel, Urban Society, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, page 125",
          "text": "\"You can't reform ODOT,\" he says wearily, \"you can only drive a stake through its heart.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2000, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Foreign Relations, Final Review of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (Treaty Doc. 105-28): Hearing Before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session, October 7, 1999, Volume 4, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 28",
          "text": "We hear great debate about how this is a bad treaty and we should defeat it and drive a stake through its heart, but what, then, should we do?",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2011, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means, Impediments to Job Creation: Hearing Before the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Twelfth Congress, First Session, March 30, 2011, U.S. Government Printing Office, page 116",
          "text": "We can't tinker with this tax code monstrosity or try to reform around the edges. The only thing we can do with this hideous beast is kill it, drive a stake through its heart, bury it, and hope that it never rises again to terrorize the American people.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "get rid of, destroy permanently or stop talking about"
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(idiomatic) get rid of, destroy permanently or stop talking about"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "drive a stake through its heart"
}