extirpate

[ek-ster-peyt, ik-stur-peyt]

verb (used with object), ex·tir·pat·ed, ex·tir·pat·ing.

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.

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. 2019

Related Words for extirpated

efface, demolish, excise, exterminate, expunge, remove, abolish, abate, erase, kill, eliminate, annihilate, extinguish, raze, eradicate, deracinate, exsect

Examples from the Web for extirpated

Contemporary Examples of extirpated

Government activism on behalf of the common man was an unforgivable sin to be extirpated from the body politic.
The South Has Indeed Risen Again and It’s Called the Tea Party
Jack Schwartz
December 8, 2013

Historical Examples of extirpated

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.
A Hungarian Nabob
Maurus Jkai
Many other practices of this kind may then have prevailed and have since then been extirpated.
The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy
Jacob Burckhardt
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)

to remove or destroy completely

to pull up or out; uproot

to remove (an organ or part) surgically

Derived Formsextirpation, nounextirpative, adjectiveextirpator, noun

Word Origin for extirpate

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

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