erase

[ ih-reys ]

verb (used with object)

, e·rased, e·ras·ing.

1. to rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, etc.; efface.

   Synonyms: obliterate, expunge

   Antonyms: restore

2. to eliminate completely:

   She couldn't erase the tragic scene from her memory.

3. to obliterate (material recorded on magnetic tape or a magnetic disk):

   She erased the message.

   Antonyms: restore

4. to obliterate recorded material from (a magnetic tape or disk):

   He accidentally erased the tape.

5. Computers. to remove (data) from computer storage.
6. to exclude, replace, or refuse to recognize (the identity, experience, or contribution of a minority group or group member): whitewash ( def 7b ).

   Framing rape as a woman’s issue erases men’s accounts of sexual violence from public discourse.

7. Slang. to murder:

   The gang had to erase him before he informed on them.

verb (used without object)

, e·rased, e·ras·ing.

1. to give way to effacement readily or easily.
2. to obliterate characters, letters, markings, etc., from something.

erase

/ ɪˈreɪz /

verb

1. to obliterate or rub out (something written, typed, etc)
2. tr to destroy all traces of; remove completely

   time erases grief

3. to remove (a recording) from (magnetic tape)
4. tr computing to replace (data) on a storage device with characters representing an absence of data

Derived Forms

• eˈrasable, adjective

Other Words From

• e·rasa·bili·ty noun
• e·rasa·ble adjective
• half-e·rased adjective
• none·rasa·ble adjective
• une·rasa·ble adjective
• une·rased adjective
• une·rasing adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of erase¹

First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin ērāsus (past participle of ērādere ), equivalent to ē- e- ¹ + rāsus “scraped”; raze

Word History and Origins

Origin of erase¹

C17: from Latin ērādere to scrape off, from ex- ¹+ rādere to scratch, scrape

Synonym Study

See cancel.

Example Sentences

Milestone moments like graduation and homecoming have been erased.

From Washington Post

One looming change is the death of the third party cookie, which threatens to erase everything brands thought they knew about harnessing data.

From Digiday

Once barely touched, rural communities were experiencing multiple outbreaks, fueling a more than fivefold spike in infections that erased the racial gap seen until that point in the pandemic.

From Washington Post

The 26-minute documentary introducing the groundless theory went viral on Facebook in the spring before the company moved to erase it from its platform.

From Washington Post

This lets you erase parts of the second layer while still seeing how it will line up with what’s behind it.

From Popular-Science

Do as Tumblr has done and scrub her last words off the Internet—erase everything she wanted the world to hear.

From The Daily Beast

Is this a mature expression of understandable judgment, or a bid to erase history while conflating fiction and reality?

From The Daily Beast

Its militants say explicitly they are out to erase the borders that Sykes-Picot established across most of the modern Middle East.

From The Daily Beast

Later, she told a local reporter that she had used a chemical to erase her fingerprints.

From The Daily Beast

I was worried that a movie about the case would erase Meredith for good.

From The Daily Beast

But they could not erase the past; they could not control the more distant future.

From Project Gutenberg

The test applied was to erase some particular letter of the alphabet from one page of a book.

From Project Gutenberg

I pointed out where the ground had been smoothed over as though to erase the traces of a struggle.

From Project Gutenberg

You worked your way outward on this run, and the High Council didn't see fit to erase those memories or inhibit them.

From Project Gutenberg

In regard to the chemicals used to erase ink, much depends upon the ink.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• abolish
• delete
• eliminate
• expunge
• negate
• obliterate
• wipe out