wipe out

verb

1. (tr) to destroy completely; eradicate

2. informal,  (tr) to murder or kill

3. (intr) to fall or jump off a surfboard or skateboard

noun

1. an act or instance of wiping out

2. the interference of one radio signal by another so that reception is impossible

Idioms and Phrases

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

The city had two decades of spirited opposition politics, which took off in the final years of British colonial rule and grew into a pro-democracy coalition in the 2010s before being wiped out.

Read more on Barron's

That decision has wiped out profits for the unit and is not sustainable, he said.

Read more on BBC

Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau lamented Manzo’s death on X, and wrote that the U.S. stood ready to deepen security cooperation with Mexico to wipe out organized crime on both sides of the border.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

“The U.S. stands ready to deepen security cooperation with Mexico to wipe out organized crime,” Landau wrote.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

U.S. government debt sold off Thursday morning, nearly wiping out all of October’s gains as comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell transformed investors’ expectations for interest-rate cuts.

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• abolish 
• annihilate 
• cancel 
• decimate 
• eliminate 
• eradicate 
• erase 
• exterminate 
• extinguish 
• kill 
• obliterate 
• remove 
• slaughter 
• uproot