Library / English Dictionary

OBLITERATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (adjective) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reduced to nothingness

Synonyms:

blotted out; obliterate; obliterated

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

destroyed (spoiled or ruined or demolished)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remove completely from recognition or memory

Example:

efface the memory of the time in the camps

Synonyms:

efface; obliterate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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 2

Meaning:

Make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing

Example:

a veiled threat

Synonyms:

blot out; hide; obliterate; obscure; veil

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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:

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)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Mark for deletion, rub off, or erase

Example:

kill these lines in the President's speech

Synonyms:

kill; obliterate; wipe out

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

And I hope, also, he continued, sitting down in the rocking-chair, that the cares of medical practice have not entirely obliterated the interest which you used to take in our little deductive problems.

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

Now, uttered before a stranger, the accusation cut me to the heart; I dimly perceived that she was already obliterating hope from the new phase of existence which she destined me to enter; I felt, though I could not have expressed the feeling, that she was sowing aversion and unkindness along my future path; I saw myself transformed under Mr. Brocklehurst's eye into an artful, noxious child, and what could I do to remedy the injury?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But time began at last to obliterate the freshness of my alarm; the praises of conscience began to grow into a thing of course; I began to be tortured with throes and longings, as of Hyde struggling after freedom; and at last, in an hour of moral weakness, I once again compounded and swallowed the transforming draught.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

A shallow groove between the dentate gyrus and the parahippocampal gyrus; the remains of a fissure extending deep into the hippocampus between Ammon's horn and the dentate gyrus which becomes obliterated during foetal development.

(Hippocampal Fissure, NCI Thesaurus)

We are progressing. My friend has now a whole colony of sparrows, and his flies and spiders are almost obliterated.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Justine also was a girl of merit and possessed qualities which promised to render her life happy; now all was to be obliterated in an ignominious grave, and I the cause!

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Here, once again, was the mark of the bicycle, though nearly obliterated by the hoofs of cows.

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

The letters were still legible, but it was perfectly clear from their blurred appearance, and from the staining of the skin round them, that efforts had been made to obliterate them.

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

He remembered all about the incident of the boxes, and from a wonderful dog's-eared notebook, which he produced from some mysterious receptacle about the seat of his trousers, and which had hieroglyphical entries in thick, half-obliterated pencil, he gave me the destinations of the boxes.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He wished as much as possible to obliterate the memory of the scenes that had taken place in Ireland and never alluded to them or suffered me to speak of my misfortunes.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)