erase

[ ih-reys ]

/ ɪˈreɪs /

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See synonyms for: erase / erased / erasing 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.

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.See also whitewash (def. 7b).

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.

OTHER WORDS FOR erase

1 expunge, obliterate.

See synonyms for erase on Thesaurus.com

OPPOSITES FOR erase

1, 3 restore.

See antonyms for erase on Thesaurus.com

QUIZ

THINGAMABOB OR THINGUMMY: CAN YOU DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE US AND UK TERMS IN THIS QUIZ?

Do you know the difference between everyday US and UK terminology? Test yourself with this quiz on words that differ across the Atlantic.

Question 1 of 7

In the UK, COTTON CANDY is more commonly known as…

candystring

candyfloss

candypuff

TAKE THE QUIZ TO FIND OUT

Origin of erase

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

synonym study for erase

1. See cancel.

OTHER WORDS FROM erase

e·ras·a·bil·i·ty, noune·ras·a·ble, adjectivehalf-e·rased, adjectivenon·e·ras·a·ble, adjective

un·e·ras·a·ble, adjectiveun·e·rased, adjectiveun·e·ras·ing, adjective

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH erase

erasable , irascible

Words nearby erase

era, eradiate, eradicable, eradicate, eradication, erase, eraser, erasing head, erasion, Erasistratus, Erasmian

How to use erase in a sentence

Milestone moments like graduation and homecoming have been erased.
The loneliness of an interrupted adolescence|Ellen McCarthy|February 11, 2021|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.
Brand Summit Recap: Marketers face looming identity crisis|Digiday Editors|February 10, 2021|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.
900,000 infected. Nearly 15,000 dead. How the coronavirus tore through D.C., Maryland and Virginia.|Rebecca Tan, Antonio Olivo, John D. Harden|February 5, 2021|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.
Anti-vaccine protest at Dodger Stadium was organized on Facebook, including promotion of banned ‘Plandemic’ video|Isaac Stanley-Becker|February 2, 2021|Washington Post

This lets you erase parts of the second layer while still seeing how it will line up with what’s behind it.
How to make a legendary meme|John Kennedy|January 22, 2021|Popular-Science
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
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|DAILY BEAST
I was worried that a movie about the case would erase Meredith for good.
What It's Like to Watch Kate Beckinsale Play You in a Movie|Barbie Latza Nadeau|September 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
But they could not erase the past; they could not control the more distant future.
The Bronze Eagle|Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy
The test applied was to erase some particular letter of the alphabet from one page of a book.
The Sexual Life of the Child|Albert Moll
I pointed out where the ground had been smoothed over as though to erase the traces of a struggle.
A Frontier Mystery|Bertram Mitford
You worked your way outward on this run, and the High Council didn't see fit to erase those memories or inhibit them.
The Colors of Space|Marion Zimmer Bradley
In regard to the chemicals used to erase ink, much depends upon the ink.
Disputed Handwriting|Jerome B. Lavay

British Dictionary definitions for erase

erase

/ (ɪˈreɪz) /

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 forms of erase

erasable, 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

erase

OTHER WORDS FOR erase

OPPOSITES FOR erase

Origin of erase

synonym study for erase

OTHER WORDS FROM erase

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH erase

Words nearby erase

Words related to erase

How to use erase in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for erase

Derived forms of erase

Word Origin for erase