OBLITERATE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Obliterate

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/əblˈɪtərˌeɪt/ Listen

verb

Obliterate v. t. (past & past part. obliterated; pres. part. obliterating)

To erase or blot out; to efface; to render undecipherable, as a writing.

To wear out; to remove or destroy utterly by any means; to render imperceptible; as, to obliterate ideas; to obliterate the monuments of antiquity. "The harsh and bitter feelings of this or that experience are slowly obliterated."

adjective

Obliterate adj. (Zool.) Scarcely distinct; applied to the markings of insects.

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Etymology of 'Obliterate'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Obliterate" Quotes from Famous Books

... fate reserved for the democratic era? May not the general well-being be purchased too dearly at such a price? The creative force which in the beginning we see forever tending to produce and multiply differences, will it afterward retrace its steps and obliterate them one by one? And equality, which in the dawn of existence is mere inertia, torpor, and death, is it to become at last the natural form of life? Or rather, above the economic and political equality to which the socialist and non-socialist democracy aspires, taking it too often for the term ...

— Amiel's Journal • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... what his particular vocation, is to lend all the strength he has to the work of keeping her afloat. What! shall it be said that we waver in the view of those who begin by trying to expunge the sacred memory of the fourth of July? Shall we help them to obliterate the associations that cluster around the glorious struggle for independence, or stultify the labors of the patriots who erected this magnificent political edifice upon the adamantine base of human liberty? Shall we surrender ...

— The World's Best Orations, Vol. 1 (of 10) • Various

... the most elegant aplomb]. Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh! Mr Mangan, you are bound in honor to obliterate from your mind all you heard while you were pretending to be asleep. It was not ...

— Heartbreak House • George Bernard Shaw

... which the peevish spleen, yet bitter malice of Scottish Prelacy, found gratification in attempting to destroy. But there is a righteous retribution even in this world. Men rear their own monuments, and write inscriptions on them which time cannot obliterate. Gillespie's enduring monument is in his actions and his writings, which latest ages will admire. The monuments of Scottish Prelacy are equally imperishable, whether in the wantonly defaced tomb-stones of piety and patriotism, ...

— The Works of Mr. George Gillespie (Vol. 1 of 2) • George Gillespie

... and vein, and, after separating the vessels, to close the opening in each by suture; this may be difficult or impossible if the parts are matted from former suppuration. If it is impossible thus to obliterate the communication, the artery should be ligated above and below the point of communication; although the risk of gangrene is considerable unless means are taken to develop ...

— Manual of Surgery - Volume First: General Surgery. Sixth Edition. • Alexis Thomson and Alexander Miles

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