obliterate
verb
J. W. KrutchEmily Dickinson
Did you know?
Obliterate has been preserved in our language for centuries, and that’s not nothing! The earliest evidence in our files traces obliterate back to the mid-16th century as a word for removing something from memory. Soon after, English speakers began to use it for the specific act of blotting out or obscuring anything written, and eventually its meaning was generalized to removing anything from existence. In the meantime, physicians began using obliterate for the surgical act of filling or closing up a vessel, cavity, or passage with tissue, which would then cause the bodily part to collapse or disappear. Today obliterate thrives in the English lexicon with the various senses it has acquired over the years, including its final stamp on the language: “to cancel (something, especially a postage stamp).”
Synonyms
Examples of obliterate in a Sentence
Michaela Zee, Variety, 19 Nov. 2024
Roofs and walls of two homes across the narrow street were obliterated, their interiors exposed.
—Scott Peterson, The Christian Science Monitor, 13 Nov. 2024
But the attacks obliterated his world literally and figuratively.
—Michael Loria, USA TODAY, 10 Nov. 2024
But as the mercury climbed and the sun obliterated their minds, their Mad Max adventure started to look more and more like a window into something amazing—and terrifying.
—Outside Online, 23 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for obliterate 
Dictionary Entries Near obliterate
Cite this Entry
“Obliterate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/obliterate. Accessed 30 Nov. 2024.
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obliterate
verb
Medical Definition
obliterate
transitive verb
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