extirpate

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This will render the population question more acute, especially as the diseases which we hope to extirpate are the commonest cause both of sterility and of infant mortality.

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Definitions (9)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive verb To pull up by the roots.
  2. transitive verb To destroy totally; exterminate. See Synonyms at abolish.
  3. transitive verb To remove by surgery.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (2)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • In this antichristian system of the Papacy, Luther saw Satanic powers at work, which blinded the human heart, and might indeed succeed, by dint of suffering and oppression, in overcoming for the moment the Word of God, but which could never finally extirpate or extinguish it. —  Life of Luther
  • But even if it were as possible by violence as it might conceivably be desirable to extirpate or even to limit the propagation of a particular form of mental culture, the achievement would certainly not be worth the cost to the unhappy survivors and their posterity. —  The World in Chains Some Aspects of War and Trade
  • Unlike the nations and peoples of the earth, be they of the East or of the West, democratic or authoritarian, communist or capitalist, whether belonging to the Old World or the New, who either ignore, trample upon, or extirpate, the racial, religious, or political minorities within the sphere of their jurisdiction, every organized community enlisted under the banner of Bahá’u’lláh should feel it to be its first and inescapable obligation to nurture, encourage, and safeguard every minority belonging to any faith, race, class, or nation within it. —  The Advent of Divine Justice
  • So, in a letter to Rodolph, Duke of Suabia, who at that time was known to be secretly hostile to the king, Gregory declared that he entertained no ill feeling whatever for Henry, but simply desired to do his duty There were two evils which Gregory was resolved to extirpate: lay investitures, and the incontinence of the clergy. —  The Truce of God A Tale of the Eleventh Century
  • This will render the population question more acute, especially as the diseases which we hope to extirpate are the commonest cause both of sterility and of infant mortality. —  Outspoken Essays
 

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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Latin exstirpāre, exstirpāt- : ex-, ex- + stirps, root.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also exterpate, exterpat; from Latin extirpatus, exstirpatus, past participle of extirpare, exstirpare, root out: see extirp.
 

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/ˈɛkstərpeɪt/
by American Heritage

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