erase
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, etc.; efface.
- Synonyms:
- obliterate, expunge
- Antonyms:
- restore
-
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.
- Antonyms:
- restore
-
to obliterate recorded material from (a magnetic tape or disk).
He accidentally erased the tape.
-
Computers. to remove (data) from computer storage.
-
to exclude, replace, or refuse to recognize (the identity, experience, or contribution of a minority group or group member).
Framing rape as a woman’s issue erases men’s accounts of sexual violence from public discourse.
-
Slang. to murder.
The gang had to erase him before he informed on them.
verb (used without object)
-
to give way to effacement readily or easily.
-
to obliterate characters, letters, markings, etc., from something.
verb
-
to obliterate or rub out (something written, typed, etc)
-
(tr) to destroy all traces of; remove completely
time 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
Related Words
See cancel.
Other Word Forms
- erasability noun
- erasable adjective
- half-erased adjective
- nonerasable adjective
- unerasable adjective
- unerased adjective
- unerasing adjective
Etymology
Origin of erase
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin ērāsus (past participle of ērādere ), equivalent to ē- e- 1 + rāsus “scraped”; raze
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.
I was retracing my steps of 20 years earlier to a scene of mass death I had never been able to erase from my mind.
From Los Angeles Times
Essentially, the scientists had erased a specific memory.
From Los Angeles Times
“So all those years of ‘cool’ usernames and cringe emails can be erased… shame it can’t delete the memories associated with them,” another X user posted.
From Los Angeles Times
It is a room in Sandringham where the royals could be gathering this week to watch the King's message and they might have to erase that other image from their thoughts.
From BBC
In that game, Tagovailoa was relegated to wearing a headset and holding a dry erase board as the most expensive backup in NFL history.
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.
