erase
Americanverb (used with object)
-
erases,
present (3rd person singular)
-
erased,
past participle, past
-
erasing
present participle
-
to rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, etc.; efface.
- Synonyms:
- obliterate, expunge
- Antonyms:
- restore
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to eliminate completely.
She couldn't erase the tragic scene from her memory.
-
to obliterate (material recorded on magnetic tape or a magnetic disk).
She erased the message.
- Antonyms:
- restore
-
to obliterate recorded material from (a magnetic tape or disk).
He accidentally erased the tape.
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Computers. to remove (data) from computer storage.
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to exclude, replace, or refuse to recognize (the identity, experience, or contribution of a minority group or group member).
Framing rape as a woman’s issue erases men’s accounts of sexual violence from public discourse.
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Slang. to murder.
The gang had to erase him before he informed on them.
verb (used without object)
-
erases,
present (3rd person singular)
-
erased,
past participle, past
-
erasing
present participle
-
to give way to effacement readily or easily.
-
to obliterate characters, letters, markings, etc., from something.
verb
-
to obliterate or rub out (something written, typed, etc)
-
(tr) to destroy all traces of; remove completely
time erases grief
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to remove (a recording) from (magnetic tape)
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(tr) computing to replace (data) on a storage device with characters representing an absence of data
Synonym Usage
See cancel.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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erasabilitynoun
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erasableadjective
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half-erasedadjective
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nonerasableadjective
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unerasableadjective
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unerasedadjective
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unerasingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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erasesimple
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erasessimple
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have erasedperfect
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has erasedperfect
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am erasingprogressive
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are erasingprogressive
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is erasingprogressive
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have been erasingperfect progressive
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has been erasingperfect progressive
Past
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erasedsimple
-
had erasedperfect
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was erasingprogressive
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were erasingprogressive
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had been erasingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of erase
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin ērāsus (past participle of ērādere ), equivalent to ē- e- 1 + rāsus “scraped”; see raze
Explanation
When you erase something, you eliminate or delete it, often by physically wiping it out. It's easy to erase chalk from a blackboard, but not so easy to erase graffiti from the side of a building. There are several ways to erase: you can erase a pencil mark with an eraser; you can digitally erase information on your computer or recording device; and you can figuratively erase something by removing all evidence of it. Peaceful people hope to erase war from the earth, for example — to take away every last trace of it. The Latin root eradere means "scrape out."
Vocabulary lists containing erase
"American Names"
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5-letter words, List 1
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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:
"What did you do? You lost a bet or what? Block me and erase my number," Ibrahimovic said.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
That persistence is an important challenge because weight loss does not necessarily erase all of obesity's long-term effects on the immune system.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026
“She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry. Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026
I cannot erase the image of that scorched cell from my mind.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
I have no time to erase the stricken look on my face, but, lucky for me, she associates it with the conditioner and curling iron that I left on the desk.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
“It’s not like the SAT erases those inequities, but it’s not like the SAT adds to those inequities.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
“Their vessel leaves a smooth, filigree-edged road on the ocean that vanishes and erases itself,” Enda notices on her voyage, “so that they can never find their way back, even if they want to.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
The new policy erases all ambiguity around the question of whether bot-made text can exist on Wikipedia’s public pages to begin with.
From Slate ● Apr. 1, 2026
At about 180 million years old, they formed during a time when animals were actively disturbing the seafloor worldwide, which normally erases delicate microbial textures.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 8, 2026
“It’s like if you label it with that word, it erases all the good.”
From "Red Flags and Butterflies" by Sheryl Azzam
The drastic fall erased more than $1 trillion in market value from the company, though it still retains a $1.6-trillion market cap.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
U.S. stocks on Friday closed out a brutal month that erased a chunk of the summer’s gains in technology names.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
Citizen detectives like Diarra Brickland, who arranges her messy life around ensuring that the people and prizes typically overlooked or quietly erased by the mainstream keep being seen, are even less common.
From Salon ● Aug. 1, 2026
The last time viewers saw Peter Parker, he had voluntarily erased himself from the memories of his loved ones.
From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026
After that, she erased the nose and turned it up a bit more, made the eyes a little rounder, the top lip a bit thinner.
From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
Fearing that authorities were actively erasing culpability, the victim's family appealed for help.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026
The film, which was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, follows Peter Parker as he struggles with changes to his powers and lives in isolation after erasing his identity.
From Barron's ● Aug. 16, 2026
If you haven’t been following the controversy, Wilson felt that Nolan had flattened the saga by mostly erasing the Greek gods and Odysseus’ wit, lust and thorny contradictions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Both stocks and bonds saw wild swings, while the dollar finished 0.5% lower — more than erasing all of its gains from earlier in the month, based on the performance of the ICE U.S.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026
Laila pictured him as he must have been once, erasing his blackboard with graceful swipes, looking over a student’s shoulder, fatherly and attentive.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
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.
