extirpate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
extirpates,
present (3rd person singular)
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extirpated,
past participle, past
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extirpating
present participle
-
to remove or destroy totally; do away with; exterminate.
-
to pull up by or as if by the roots; root up.
to extirpate an unwanted hair.
verb
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to remove or destroy completely
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to pull up or out; uproot
-
to remove (an organ or part) surgically
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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extirpatesimple
-
extirpatessimple
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have extirpatedperfect
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has extirpatedperfect
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am extirpatingprogressive
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are extirpatingprogressive
-
is extirpatingprogressive
-
have been extirpatingperfect progressive
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has been extirpatingperfect progressive
Past
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extirpatedsimple
-
had extirpatedperfect
-
was extirpatingprogressive
-
were extirpatingprogressive
-
had been extirpatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of extirpate
First recorded in 1530–40; from Latin ex(s)tirpātus “plucked up by the stem” (past participle of ex(s)tirpāre ), equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + stirp- (stem of stirps ) “stem” + -ātus -ate 1
Explanation
The verb extirpate originally meant "to weed out by the roots." Now you can use it more broadly to describe getting rid of something completely. Use the verb extirpate when you mean to destroy completely or get rid of completely. If you came home from vacation with your luggage infested by bedbugs, you will need to call an exterminator to extirpate them. The dodo bird was extirpated due to hunting and the introduction of predators in their habitat.
Vocabulary lists containing extirpate
Oedipus the King
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The Tempest
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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.
See Examples For:
"Feral American mink pose a particular risk to island biodiversity, especially to ground-nesting birds and small mammals which in certain circumstances they may have the potential to extirpate," Keen explained.
From Salon ● Dec. 2, 2022
Glasberg argues that “while it is imperative to be aware of ‘race’ to extirpate racism, it is unnecessary to continue to racialize groups victimized by racism.”
From Washington Post ● Sep. 6, 2019
It was a poor return for American backing for the Baghdad government’s drive to extirpate Islamic State and regain lost territory.
From The Guardian ● May 15, 2018
Yet however hard they exercise they cannot extirpate the memories of their high-school years.
From Economist ● Aug. 11, 2016
To extirpate is to exterminate or destroy a living entity or group so completely that it ceases to exist forever.
From "An Indigenous People’s History of the United States" by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
The exercise of the religious nature is the gymnastics of the soul, and the disuse of the religious nature extirpates its capacity.
From Mornings in the College Chapel Short Addresses to Young Men on Personal Religion by Francis Greenwood Peabody
I think that the intellect and moral sentiment are unanimous; and that, though philosophy extirpates bugbears, yet it supplies the natural checks of vice, and polarity to the soul.
From Representative Men by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Spiritual sympathy is a lesser mercy than that forethought which anticipates and extirpates the causes of suffering.
From The Principles Of Secularism by George Jacob Holyoake
The revolution extirpates kingship in the king, aristocracy in the noble, despotism in the soldier, superstition in the priest, barbarity in the judge, in a word whatever is tyranny in whatever is tyrant.
From Studies in Literature by John Morley
It destroys and in the end extirpates the evil feeling.
From The Kingdom of God Is Within You by Constance Garnett
In recent decades, sightings were rare and Florida classified them extirpated, insisting that any spotted in nature were escapees from zoos or sanctuaries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
"Jaguars were nearly, but never fully, extirpated from this region," McSpadden explained, adding that they are "tenacious" animals, and populations from northern Mexico have always strayed across the U.S.-Mexico border from time to time.
From Salon ● May 31, 2024
“As a Californian, I feel it’s my obligation to do everything possible to bring back the extirpated, missing species that are no longer here in a functional way because of human activity.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 17, 2024
This suggests that local populations may have been extirpated -- a term to describe a type of localized extinction, said study co-author Scott Baker, associate director of OSU's Marine Mammal Institute.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 2, 2023
Beavers formerly abounded in this river, but they are now extirpated.
From Travels in the Interior of North America, Part I, (Being Chapters I-XV of the London Edition, 1843) Early Western Travels, 1748-1846, Volume XXII by Alexander Philipp Maximilian
“I don’t want to go so far as to say that the humans are the cause of this variation by extirpating predators,” says Stankowich.
From National Geographic ● Oct. 6, 2023
And led by Rep. Tim Ryan, Ohio Democrat and chairman of the subcommittee that oversees Congress own internal budget, they inserted language into the 2021 spending bill setting the 45-day deadline for extirpating the Confederates.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 23, 2020
In the twentieth century, human beings did penguins a favor by all but extirpating many of the whales and seals that they competed with for food.
From The New Yorker ● May 23, 2016
George W. Bush, in his pre-Presidential days, was even more preoccupied than his father with extirpating aides who, in his view, had their own agendas.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 12, 2015
The curse of knowledge hides them from the writer, who therefore must put some effort into spotting and extirpating them.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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.
