obliterate
/əˈblɪtəˌɹeɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.79 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To destroy (someone or something) completely, leaving no trace; to annihilate, to wipe out.
Transitive verb
verb
To make (a drawing, text which is printed or written, etc.) indecipherable, either by erasing or obscuring it; to blot out, to efface, to delete.
Transitive verb
verb
To impair the function and/or structure of (a body cavity, vessel, etc.) by ablating or occluding it (in the latter case, chiefly by filling it with tissue).
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "[H]e [Pope Gregory I] deſigned to obliterate and extinguiſh the memorie of Heathen antiquitie and Authors."
- "This opinion ſeemeth to me, to leave very little or no place for the Chriſtian Religion. For […] It obliterateth the notion of Gods Holineſs, vvhich to be no Holineſs, but a common or indifferent thing."
- "VVhen vve forget Things; either the Impreſſions are obliterated, or the Images diſſolved into their firſt Principles, or Exterminated from the Brain, vvith the Current of the Animal Spirits into the Nerves."
- "All tenderness for the feelings of others, all selfrespect, all sense of the becoming, were obliterated from his [George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys's] mind."
- "The Four Years' War is over— […] A new race, a young and lusty generation, already sweeps in with oceanic currents, obliterating the war, and all its scars, its mounded graves, and all its reminiscences of hatred, conflict, death. So let it be obliterated."
- "That is what distance does for us; the harsh and bitter feelings of this or that experience are slowly obliterated, and memory begins to look kindly on the past."
Etymology
PIE word *h₁epi (start of 17th century) From earlier obliterat, learned borrowing from Latin obliterātus, oblitterātus (“having been blotted out, effaced, erased; having been forgotten”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix, of participial origin)). Obliterātus and oblitterātus are respectively the perfect passive participles of obliterō and oblitterō (“to blot out, efface, erase, obliterate; to cause to be forgotten”), probably either: * from ob- (prefix meaning ‘against; towards’) + littera (“letter of the alphabet; (metonymically) handwriting”) (further etymology unknown); or * from oblītus (“disregarded, neglected; forgotten”), influenced by littera. Oblītus is the perfect passive participle of oblinō (“to daub over, besmear”), from ob- + possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ- (“not heavy, light; brief; swift”). Cognates * Catalan obliterar (“to erase; to cancel (a stamp); to close up or fill (a body cavity, vessel, etc.)”) * Middle French oblitérer (modern French oblitérer (“to cause (memories) to fade; to block, obstruct; to cancel (a stamp, ticket, etc.) so it cannot be reused”)) * Portuguese obliterar (“to destroy completely; to erase”) * Spanish obliterar (“to destroy completely; to erase”)
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *h₁lengʷʰ-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /əˈblɪtəˌɹeɪt/
- British English: /əˈblɪtəɹeɪt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
obliterates (present, singular)
obliterating (participle, present)
obliterated (participle, past)
obliterated (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
obliterated (first person, past)
obliteratest (archaic, present)
obliterated (past, second person)
obliteratedst (archaic, past)
obliterateth (archaic, present)
obliterated (past, singular)