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extirpate

[ek-ster-peyt, ik-stur-peyt]
verb (used with object), ex·tir·pat·ed, ex·tir·pat·ing.
  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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Origin of extirpate

1530–40; < 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 -ate1
Related formsex·tir·pa·tion, nounex·tir·pa·tive, adjectiveex·tir·pa·tor, nounun·ex·tir·pat·ed, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words

effacedemolishexciseexterminateexpungeremoveabolishabateerasekilleliminateannihilateextinguishrazeeradicatederacinateexsect

Examples from the Web for extirpated

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • It should be guided and restrained, but can never be extirpated.

    Criminal Man

    Gina Lombroso-Ferrero

  • The weeds had to be extirpated before the seeds of nobler flowers could be sown.

  • Many other practices of this kind may then have prevailed and have since then been extirpated.

  • Extirpated they may have been, like the Moors of Spain, but extirpation is not apostasy.

    The New World of Islam

    Lothrop Stoddard

  • We have seen a whole tribe, the Mandans, extirpated by it in our own day.

    Medical Essays

    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

British Dictionary definitions for extirpated

extirpate

verb (tr)
  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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Derived Formsextirpation, nounextirpative, adjectiveextirpator, noun

Word Origin

C16: from Latin exstirpāre to root out, from stirps root, stock
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

Word Origin and History for extirpated

extirpate

v.

1530s, usually figurative, from Latin extirpatus/exstirpatus, past participle of extirpare/exstirpare (see extirpation). Related: Extirpated; extirpating.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper