erase

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• transitive verb To remove (something written, for example) by rubbing, wiping, or scraping.
• transitive verb To remove (recorded material) from a magnetic tape or other storage medium.
• transitive verb To remove recorded material from (a magnetic tape or disk, for example).
• transitive verb To remove all traces of; eliminate or obliterate.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, or painted; efface; blot or strike out; obliterate; expunge: as, to erase a word or a name.
• Hence To remove or destroy, as if by rubbing or blotting out.
• To destroy to the foundation; raze.
• Synonyms Cancel, Obliterate, etc. (see efface); wipe out, rub off, remove.
• In entomology, sinuate, with the sinuses cut into smaller irregular notches: applied especially to the wings of certain Lepidoptera.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, or painted; to efface; to expunge; to cross out.
• transitive verb Fig.: To obliterate; to expunge; to blot out; -- used of ideas in the mind or memory.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb transitive to remove markings or information
• verb transitive To obliterate information from (a storage medium), such as to clear or (with magnetic storage) to demagnetize.
• verb transitive To obliterate (information) from a storage medium, such as to clear or to overwrite.
• verb transitive, baseball To remove a runner from the bases via a double play or pick off play
• verb intransitive To be erased (have markings removed, have information removed, or be cleared of information).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb wipe out digitally or magnetically recorded information
• verb remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing
• verb remove from memory or existence