EXTERMINATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does exterminate mean? 

• EXTERMINATE (verb)
  The verb EXTERMINATE has 2 senses:

1. kill en masse; kill on a large scale; kill many

2. destroy completely, as if down to the roots

  Familiarity information: EXTERMINATE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXTERMINATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they exterminate    ... he / she / it exterminates   
Past simple: exterminated   
Past participle: exterminated   
-ing form: exterminating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Kill en masse; kill on a large scale; kill many

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

exterminate; kill off

Context example:

Hitler wanted to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and homosexuals of Europe

Hypernyms (to "exterminate" is one way to...):

kill (cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to exterminate the prisoners

Derivation:

exterminator (someone who exterminates (especially someone whose occupation is the extermination of troublesome rodents and insects))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Destroy completely, as if down to the roots

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Synonyms:

eradicate; exterminate; extirpate; root out; uproot

Context example:

root out corruption

Hypernyms (to "exterminate" is one way to...):

destroy; destruct (do away with, cause the destruction or undoing of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

The males were exterminated, Ape Town was destroyed, the females and young were driven away to live in bondage, and the long rivalry of untold centuries had reached its bloody end.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The question to be debated was, “whether the Yahoos should be exterminated from the face of the earth?”

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Obviously, those supernovas were not close enough to exterminate life on Earth—but they were close enough to wrap our solar system in a bubble of hot gas that persists millions of years later.

(Evidence for supernovas near Earth, NASA)