exterminate
verb (used with object)
to get rid of by destroying; destroy totally; extirpate.
exterminated
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past participleof exterminate.past participle
A verb form used in perfect and passive verb constructions and that can also function as a modifier.
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past tense formof exterminate.past tense
Used to describe completed actions or previous habitual actions.
exterminateverb (used with object)to get rid of by destroying; destroy totally; extirpate.
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.
Within about 50 years, the crocodiles had been completely exterminated.
From Science Daily ● May 28, 2026
Along with the passenger pigeon we exterminated the great auk, the Carolina parakeet, the Labrador duck and the ivory-billed woodpecker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
It’s as though, having all but exterminated a plague, we decided we no longer needed to keep up the pyric hygiene that contained it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2025
The over-appropriated Yakima River Basin is even worse, due to the U. S. Bureau of Reclamation dams that exterminated several runs of salmon.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 17, 2023
Hunters expanding southward through the Americas, encountering big animals that had never seen humans before, may have found those American animals easy to kill and may have exterminated them.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
