wipe out

verb

1. (tr) to destroy completely; eradicate

2. informal,  (tr) to murder or kill

3. (intr) to fall or jump off a surfboard or skateboard

noun

1. an act or instance of wiping out

2. the interference of one radio signal by another so that reception is impossible

Idioms and Phrases

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.

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]

Related Words

• abolish 
• annihilate 
• cancel 
• decimate 
• eliminate 
• eradicate 
• erase 
• exterminate 
• extinguish 
• kill 
• obliterate 
• remove 
• slaughter 
• uproot