erase

[ih-reys]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR erase ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with object), e·rased, e·ras·ing.

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

to eliminate completely: She couldn't erase the tragic scene from her memory.

to obliterate (material recorded on magnetic tape or a magnetic disk): She erased the message.

to obliterate recorded material from (a magnetic tape or disk): He accidentally erased the tape.

Computers. to remove (data) from computer storage.

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

verb (used without object), e·rased, e·ras·ing.

to give way to effacement readily or easily.

to obliterate characters, letters, markings, etc., from something.

Origin of erase

1595–1605; < Latin ērāsus (past participle of ērādere), equivalent to ē- e-¹ + rāsus scraped; see raze

Related formse·ras·a·bil·i·ty, noune·ras·a·ble, adjectivehalf-e·rased, adjectivenon·e·ras·a·ble, adjectiveun·e·ras·a·ble, adjectiveun·e·rased, adjectiveun·e·ras·ing, adjective

Can be confusederasable irascible

Synonyms for erase

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR erase ON THESAURUS.COM

1. expunge, obliterate.

Synonym study

1. See cancel.

Antonyms for erase

1, 3. restore.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for erase

expunge, obliterate, abolish, eliminate, negate, delete, efface, trim, cut, excise, blank, dispatch, nullify, strike, blot, kill, extirpate, withdraw, gut, cancel

Examples from the Web for erase

Contemporary Examples of erase

Do as Tumblr has done and scrub her last words off the Internet—erase everything she wanted the world to hear.
Cover-Ups and Concern Trolls: Actually, It's About Ethics in Suicide Journalism
Arthur Chu
January 3, 2015
Is this a mature expression of understandable judgment, or a bid to erase history while conflating fiction and reality?
Newsflash: Bill Cosby Is Not Cliff Huxtable
Tim Teeman
November 20, 2014
Its militants say explicitly they are out to erase the borders that Sykes-Picot established across most of the modern Middle East.
Turkish President Declares Lawrence of Arabia a Bigger Enemy than ISIS
Jamie Dettmer
October 13, 2014
Later, she told a local reporter that she had used a chemical to erase her fingerprints.
The Mystery Woman Who Tried to Outdo Dillinger
Michael Daly
September 29, 2014
I immediately realized I needed to do something to erase that legacy from my memory.
Paul Haggis on Scientology, the ‘Crash’ Oscar, and ‘Third Person’
Kevin Fallon
June 19, 2014

Historical Examples of erase

I find she quite ignores it, if she has sums to do, or blots to erase.
Meadow Grass
Alice Brown
And first of all, erase from it all that you have heard me say in the council-room.
Micah Clarke
Arthur Conan Doyle
He could not erase errors, or paint them over, as an artist does.
The Mystery of Murray Davenport
Robert Neilson Stephens
Hence we erase all optional marks in the 1st and 3rd rows, but let them stand in the 2nd.
A Tangled Tale
Lewis Carroll
And if he depart, let him erase all the entries which have been made by him in the register kept by the magistrates.
Laws
Plato

British Dictionary definitions for erase

erase

verb

to obliterate or rub out (something written, typed, etc)

(tr) to destroy all traces of; remove completelytime erases grief

to remove (a recording) from (magnetic tape)

(tr) computing to replace (data) on a storage device with characters representing an absence of data

Derived Formserasable, adjective

Word Origin for erase

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

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for erase

c.1600, from Latin erasus, past participle of eradere "scrape out, scrape off, shave," from ex- "out" (see ex-) + radere "to scrape" (see raze). Of magnetic tape, from 1945. Related: Erased; erasing.