extirpate

American  

[ek-ster-peyt, ik-stur-peyt] / ˈɛk stərˌpeɪt, ɪkˈstɜr peɪt /

verb (used with object)

extirpated, extirpating

1. to remove or destroy totally; do away with; exterminate.

2. to pull up by or as if by the roots; root up.

   to extirpate an unwanted hair.

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extirpate British  

/ ˈɛkstəˌpeɪt /

verb

1. to remove or destroy completely

2. to pull up or out; uproot

3. to remove (an organ or part) surgically

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Other Word Forms

• extirpation noun
• extirpative adjective
• extirpator noun

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.

Example Sentences

“The enormous increase in productive power which has marked the present century,” the social reformer Henry George complained in his 1879 bestseller, “Progress and Poverty,” “has no tendency to extirpate poverty.”

From Washington Post • Mar. 16, 2023

"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

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