wipe out
Britishverb
-
(tr) to destroy completely; eradicate
-
informal (tr) to murder or kill
-
(intr) to fall or jump off a surfboard or skateboard
noun
-
an act or instance of wiping out
-
the interference of one radio signal by another so that reception is impossible
-
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.
-
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.
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
Global tech stocks fell on the calls to hit the brakes on AI, which has fueled fears that superintelligent computer systems could go rogue and wipe out humanity by creating pathogens or triggering nuclear war.
From Barron's ● Sep. 14, 2026
Anthropic's boss, Dario Amodei, has come under fire for saying AI technology could wipe out half of entry-level white-collar jobs and will "test who we are as a species".
From BBC ● Sep. 12, 2026
A top researcher at Anthropic quit this week over fears that AI companies were developing systems they couldn’t control, while other Anthropic employees warned that AI could wipe out humanity if not properly contained.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Everybody figured that if it was something Imogene Herdman was scared to catch, it would wipe out the rest of us because ordinary germs didn’t even slow the Herdmans down.
From "The Best School Year Ever" by Barbara Robinson
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.
