extirpate
/ˈɛkstɚpeɪt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.64 in modern English
18
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To cause a population to go extinct in a particular region, but not across the entire range of the species or subspecies.
Example Sentences
- "But you are not Hercules; nor able to extirpate the Evils of others: nor even Theſeus, to extirpate the Evils of Attica. Extirpate your own then."
- "The simple object was to expel the natives, and to extirpate the Catholic religion."
- "They [steam trains] are everything modern life tries to extirpate in favour of silence, smoothness and cleanness."
- "The cougar was extirpated across nearly all of its eastern North American range in the two centuries after European colonization."
- "It is profitable […] to haue all occasions of sedicion […] to be extirpate."
Etymology
The verb is first attested in 1538, the adjective in 1541; borrowed from Latin exstirpātus perfect passive participle of exstirpō (“to uproot”), from ex- (“out of”) + stirps (“the lower part of the trunk of a tree, including the roots; the stem, stalk”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)). Doublet of extirp. Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈɛkstɚpeɪt/
- British English: /ˈɛkstəpeɪt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
extirpates (present, singular)
extirpating (participle, present)
extirpated (participle, past)
extirpated (past)
more extirpate (comparative)
most extirpate (superlative)