Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To remove or destroy completely so as to leave no trace. synonym: annihilate.
- transitive verb To render invisible or unreadable, as by erasing or marking over.
- transitive verb Medicine To remove completely (a body organ or part), as by surgery, disease, or radiation.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In entomology, almost effaced; obsolete or very indistinct, as the surface-markings of an insect.
- To blot or render undecipherable; blot out; erase; efface; remove all traces of.
- Synonyms Erase, Expunge, etc. (see
efface ), rub out, rub off, wipe out, remove.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Zoöl.) Scarcely distinct; -- applied to the markings of insects.
- transitive verb To erase or blot out; to efface; to render undecipherable, as a writing.
- transitive verb To wear out; to remove or destroy utterly by any means; to render imperceptible.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
remove completely, leaving notrace ; towipe out ; todestroy .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective reduced to nothingness
- verb mark for deletion, rub off, or erase
- verb remove completely from recognition or memory
- verb make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing
- verb do away with completely, without leaving a trace
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Merriam-Webster tells us that the root of "obliterate" comes from the Latin word "littera", for "letter," so that obliterate really means to destroy the alphabet -- to erase not only every word but the very capacity to create words.
John Eskow: The Obliterator: Hillary Channels Her Inner Doctor Strangelove 2008
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When CNN's Rick Sanchez had a panel discussion on Hillary's "obliterate Iran" comment, he rhetorically asked words to the effect "well, 'obliterate' is just a word ... what she meant was we would deal with Iran harshly ... so what's wrong with that?"
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Using the word obliterate however, is the kind of language that we have seen George Bush use over the last seven years and it's precisely that kind of provocative language that Senator Clinton criticized others for.
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ROBERTS: And in our conversation earlier today with Barack Obama, he criticized Hillary Clinton's use of the word obliterate when referring to Iran.
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Using the word obliterate, however, is the kind of language that we have seen George Bush use over the last seven years and it's precisely that kind of provocative language that Senator Clinton criticized others for.
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Using the word obliterate, however, is the kind of language that we have seen George Bush use over the last seven years.
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Using the word obliterate, however, is the kind of language that we've seen George Bush use over the last seven years.
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GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, you know, the notion that the Iranians are complaining about saber rattling from Hillary Clinton because she used the word obliterate if they were to consider attacking Israel is kind of a joke.
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Using the word obliterate, however, is the kind of language that we have seen George Bush use over the last seven years and it's precisely that kind of provocative language that Senator Clinton criticized others for in the past, suggesting that if you're running for president, you shouldn't be stirring up international incidents.
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She used the word obliterate, which kind of goes into, you know, words that oftentimes people use, nuke and stuff.
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