Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To remove (something written, for example) by rubbing, wiping, or scraping.
- v. To remove (recorded material) from a magnetic tape or other storage medium: erased a file from the diskette.
- v. To remove recorded material from (a magnetic tape or disk, for example): erased the videocassette.
- v. To remove all traces of.
- v. To remove or destroy as if by wiping out: had to erase all thoughts of failure from his mind.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, or painted; efface; blot or strike out; obliterate; expunge: as, to erase a word or a name.
- Hence To remove or destroy, as if by rubbing or blotting out.
- To destroy to the foundation; raze.
- Synonyms Cancel, Obliterate, etc. (see efface); wipe out, rub off, remove.
- In entomology, sinuate, with the sinuses cut into smaller irregular notches: applied especially to the wings of certain Lepidoptera.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive to remove markings or information
- v. transitive To obliterate information from (a storage medium), such as to clear or (with magnetic storage) to demagnetize.
- v. transitive To obliterate (information) from a storage medium, such as to clear or to overwrite.
- v. transitive, baseball To remove a runner from the bases via a double play or pick off play
- v. intransitive To be erased (have markings removed, have information removed, or be cleared of information).
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, or painted; to efface; to expunge; to cross out.
- v. Fig.: To obliterate; to expunge; to blot out; -- used of ideas in the mind or memory.
WordNet 3.0
- v. wipe out digitally or magnetically recorded information
- v. remove by or as if by rubbing or erasing
- v. remove from memory or existence
Etymologies
- From Latin erasus, past participle of eradere ("to scrape, to abrade"), from ex- ("out of") + radere ("to scrape") (Wiktionary)
- Latin ērādere, ērās-, to scratch out : ē-, ex-, ex- + rādere, to scrape. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“One thing the demolition won't erase is the memories.”
“No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. (par 2)”
“The idea to come up with a way to erase from the board all the Star Trek canon that everyone knows is terrific.”
“Some deaths can have a Stephen Kinguesque nature to them and try as you might, they can be hard to erase from the memory. on March 24, 2008 at 1: 30 pm | Reply Noddy”
“This is the lesson of the 1930s, which Republican and libertarian propaganda has striven mightily, and successfully, to erase from the American memory, allowing it to happen all over again.”
Bush Team Seeks Dictatorial Financial Powers « Antiwar.com Blog
“This is the lesson of the 1930s, which Republican/libertarian/right-wing propaganda has striven mightily, and successfully, to erase from the American memory, allowing it to happen all over again. xearther”
Bush Team Seeks Dictatorial Financial Powers « Antiwar.com Blog
“Unknown to us, it actually did work and apparently contained recordings of personal conversations the customer failed to erase from the memory before returning the product.”
“You can go back in time and erase from the fabric of TV history THREE individual episodes of any TV show you want!”
“Anything that can erase from the memory the first movie is a good thing”
EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - Shots of the Silver Surfer on the set of FF 2
“And it has proven to be hard to erase from the courts, with more than 160 lawsuits brought by individuals, businesses and governments.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘erase’.
-
1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
-
Undo
A list of terms that denote separating one thing from another, or deconstructing a thing into its parts or to a former state. E.g., untie, divorce, unscramble.
untie, divorce, unscramble, disunite, disjoin, undo, separate, disassemble, uncouple, unhitch, disassociate, disaffiliate and 185 more...
-
Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
-
I am : violent
Destructive verbs that speed up entropy. (Still working on definition of what I want; may add adjectives later.)
destroy, wreck, thrash, trash, beat up, annihilate, exterminate, disembowel, eviscerate, disintegrate, explode, bomb and 41 more...
-
Two years
Okay, I admit it. I made a list of words my daughter knew when she was two years old.
bat, baba, a, abalone, about, acorn, adrienne, after, again, airplane, alison, all and 694 more...
-
fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
-
The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
-
Extinguishish
A list of managed departures.
jettison, demolition, clearance, chucking, disposal, defenestration, remove, exile, excommunicate, eradicate, banish, deport and 114 more...
-
Technologic
The song by Daft Punk. Just add "it" to the end of these.
buy, use, break, fix, trash, change, melt, upgrade, pawn, zoom, press, snap and 49 more...
-
jamieb's Words
obsequious, whimsical, flagella, matrix, happy, pineapple, joy, ambulophobia, lysozome, time, yawn, fracture and 111 more...
-
Random and Lovely Words.
:)
scrupulous, evasive, dandy, lovely, complacent, pickle, tomato, jingle, chipper, telepathy, snicker, wry and 74 more...
-
Verbs
collide, ascend, circumvent, languish, embark, appreciate, thrust upon, trace, contend, animated, erects, trigger and 6 more...
-
daydreaming in the warm sunlight
my list of pretty words to bathe in
milkweed, parabola, seahorse, chamomile, paleness, ether, opalescent, feather, erase, watermark
Tweets
Looking for tweets for erase.

Comments
No comments yet...
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.