wipe out
Britishverb
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(tr) to destroy completely; eradicate
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informal (tr) to murder or kill
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(intr) to fall or jump off a surfboard or skateboard
noun
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an act or instance of wiping out
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the interference of one radio signal by another so that reception is impossible
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Destroy, as in The large chains are wiping out the independent bookstores . Originally put simply as wipe , the idiom acquired out in the first half of the 1800s.
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Kill; also, murder. For example, The entire crew was wiped out in the plane crash , or The gangsters threatened to wipe him and his family out . [Late 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
He writes that the blockade is expected to wipe out $435 million in Iranian economic activity a day and force oil-field shut-ins within two weeks.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 14, 2026
Traditional oral care products like alcohol-based mouthwashes and chlorhexidine solutions kill harmful bacteria, but they also wipe out beneficial microbes.
From Science Daily • Apr. 13, 2026
“It doesn’t take much of a reaction to wipe out a margin of only three quarters of a point,” Lefèvre writes.
From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026
He added that, "for reasons of decency", he had "chosen NOT to wipe out the Oil Infrastructure on the Island".
From BBC • Mar. 14, 2026
About 1950, Dr. Knipling launched a serious effort to turn insect sterilization into a weapon that would wipe out a major insect enemy of livestock in the South, the screw-worm fly.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
