wipe out
Britishverb
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(tr) to destroy completely; eradicate
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informal (tr) to murder or kill
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(intr) to fall or jump off a surfboard or skateboard
noun
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an act or instance of wiping out
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the interference of one radio signal by another so that reception is impossible
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Destroy, as in The large chains are wiping out the independent bookstores . Originally put simply as wipe , the idiom acquired out in the first half of the 1800s.
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Kill; also, murder. For example, The entire crew was wiped out in the plane crash , or The gangsters threatened to wipe him and his family out . [Late 1800s]
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.
Could AI wipe out humans and how might it do it?
From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026
Over the past few weeks, an Anthropic researcher resigned after warning that the people racing to build advanced artificial intelligence could wipe out humanity by the end of the decade.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
The debate over the potential dangers posed by the technology intensified in recent days after a post by Jacob Coxon, a researcher who left Anthropic over concerns AI could wipe out humanity, went viral.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2026
Further outside the industry is Eliezer Yudkowsky, a self-taught theorist who has spent two decades arguing that a sufficiently powerful AI would wipe out humanity.
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
The planters did their best to wipe out maroon groups, but many were so strong and well defended that the Europeans signed peace treaties with them.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
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.
