diff --git a/backbone.js b/backbone.js
index 01db0c28..78033d41 100644
--- a/backbone.js
+++ b/backbone.js
@@ -1183,6 +1183,13 @@
       return this;
     },
 
+    // **destroy** should clean up any references created by this view,
+    // preventing memory leaks.  The convention is for **destroy** to always
+    // return `this`.
+    destroy: function() {
+      return this;
+    },
+
     // Remove this view from the DOM. Note that the view isn't present in the
     // DOM by default, so calling this method may be a no-op.
     remove: function() {
diff --git a/index.html b/index.html
index ff07ce82..06cde8d2 100644
--- a/index.html
+++ b/index.html
@@ -385,6 +385,7 @@
       <li>– <a href="#View-dollar">$ (jQuery or Zepto)</a></li>
       <li>– <a href="#View-render">render</a></li>
       <li>– <a href="#View-remove">remove</a></li>
+      <li>– <a href="#View-destroy">destroy</a></li>
       <li>– <a href="#View-make">make</a></li>
       <li>– <a href="#View-delegateEvents">delegateEvents</a></li>
       <li>– <a href="#View-undelegateEvents">undelegateEvents</a></li>
@@ -2337,6 +2338,26 @@ var Bookmark = Backbone.View.extend({
       <tt>view.$el.remove();</tt>
     </p>
 
+    <p id="View-destroy">
+      <b class="header">destroy</b><code>view.destroy()</code>
+      <br />
+      The default implementation of <b>destroy</b> is a no-op.  It should be
+      overridden in order to clean up any references created by a view,
+      either to itself or other objects, in order to prevent memory leaks.
+      By convention, <b>destroy</b> should <tt>return this</tt> for
+      chainability.
+    </p>
+
+<pre>
+var View = Backbone.View.extend({
+  destroy: function() {
+    if (this.model) this.model.off(null, null, this);
+    if (this.collection) this.collection.off(null, null, this);
+    return this;
+  }
+});
+</pre>
+
     <p id="View-make">
       <b class="header">make</b><code>view.make(tagName, [attributes], [content])</code>
       <br />