OBLITERATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does obliterate mean? 

• OBLITERATE (adjective)
  The adjective OBLITERATE has 1 sense:

1. reduced to nothingness

  Familiarity information: OBLITERATE used as an adjective is very rare.

• OBLITERATE (verb)
  The verb OBLITERATE has 4 senses:

1. mark for deletion, rub off, or erase

2. make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing

3. remove completely from recognition or memory

4. do away with completely, without leaving a trace

  Familiarity information: OBLITERATE used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OBLITERATE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reduced to nothingness

Synonyms:

blotted out; obliterate; obliterated

Similar:

destroyed (spoiled or ruined or demolished)

• OBLITERATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they obliterate    ... he / she / it obliterates   
Past simple: obliterated   
Past participle: obliterated   
-ing form: obliterating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Mark for deletion, rub off, or erase

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

kill; obliterate; wipe out

Context example:

kill these lines in the President's speech

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

take away; take out (take out or remove)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

obliterable (able to be obliterated completely)

obliteration (the complete destruction of every trace of something)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

blot out; hide; obliterate; obscure; veil

Context example:

a veiled threat

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

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Verb group:

efface; obliterate (remove completely from recognition or memory)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "obliterate"):

mystify (make mysterious)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

obliterable (able to be obliterated completely)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Remove completely from recognition or memory

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

efface; obliterate

Context example:

efface the memory of the time in the camps

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

blur; dim; slur (become vague or indistinct)

Verb group:

blot out; hide; obliterate; obscure; veil (make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

obliteration (destruction by annihilating something)

obliteration (the complete destruction of every trace of something)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Do away with completely, without leaving a trace

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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

do away with; eliminate; extinguish; get rid of (terminate, end, or take out)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

obliterable (able to be obliterated completely)

obliteration (destruction by annihilating something)

obliteration (the complete destruction of every trace of something)

obliterator (an eliminator that does away with all traces)

 Context examples 

There is much to be done, and other places to be made sanctify, so that that nest of vipers be obliterated.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

You perceive several places where it has passed across and obliterated the more shallow mark of the front one.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A congenital abnormality that results from the failure of the lumen of urachus to be obliterated.

(Patent Urachus, NCI Thesaurus)

But this discovery was so great and overwhelming that all the steps by which I had been progressively led to it were obliterated, and I beheld only the result.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Amid the crowded millions of London the three persons we sought were as completely obliterated as if they had never lived.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

WASP-39b likely had an interesting evolutionary history as it migrated in, taking an epic journey across its planetary system and perhaps obliterating planetary objects in its path.

(NASA Finds a Large Amount of Water in an Exoplanet's Atmosphere, NASA)

The inner shell is essentially an expanding shock wave, so it may be smashing into the dust grains and obliterating them, or producing an extra heating effect that evaporates the dust.

(The Strange Structures of the Saturn Nebula, ESO)

Again, at the week-ends, he ground out the one hundred and forty miles, obliterating the numbness of too great exertion by the numbness of still greater exertion.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And through another winter they wandered on the obliterated trails of men who had gone before.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

A crumpled, disintegrated newspaper revealed itself as the Chicago Democrat, though the date had been obliterated.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)