RAZE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Raze

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/reɪz/ Listen

verb

Rase v. t. (past & past part. rased; pres. part. rasing)

1.

To rub along the surface of; to graze. (Obsoles.) "Was he not in the... neighborhood to death? and might not the bullet which rased his cheek have gone into his head?" "Sometimes his feet rased the surface of the water, and at others the skylight almost flattened his nose."

2.

To rub or scratch out; to erase. (Obsoles.) "Except we rase the faculty of memory, root and branch, out of our mind."

3.

To level with the ground; to overthrow; to destroy; to raze. (In this sense raze is generally used) "Till Troy were by their brave hands rased, They would not turn home." Note: This word, rase, may be considered as nearly obsolete; graze, erase, and raze, having superseded it.

Rasing iron, a tool for removing old oakum and pitch from the seams of a vessel.

Synonyms: To erase; efface; obliterate; expunge; cancel; level; prostrate; overthrow; subvert; destroy; demolish; ruin.

Raze v. t. (past & past part. razed; pres. part. razing) (Written also rase)

1.

To erase; to efface; to obliterate. "Razing the characters of your renown."

2.

To subvert from the foundation; to lay level with the ground; to overthrow; to destroy; to demolish. "The royal hand that razed unhappy Troy."

Synonyms: To demolish; level; prostrate; overthrow; subvert; destroy; ruin. See Demolish.

noun

Raze n. A Shakespearean word (used once) supposed to mean the same as race, a root. (Obs.)

See images of 'Raze'

Etymology of 'Raze'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Raze" Quotes from Famous Books

... remonstrate with him upon the folly of permitting such an attempt, which he assured him would rouse the foreigners in other places to come with armed forces to avenge the death of their countrymen and raze the city to the ground. The Tao-t'ai replied that, when the foreigners came for that purpose, he should deny all knowledge of or complicity in the plot, and so direct their vengeance against the Cantonese, who ...

— A Retrospect • James Hudson Taylor

... not understand one another's language."—Heavy billeting; but what was that?... "Vast, nearly impossible, quantities of forage and provision," were wrung from us, as from all the other Towns and Villages about, "under continual threatening to burn and raze us from the earth. Often did our French Colonel threaten, 'He would have the cannon opened on Freiburg straightway.' Nay, had it stood by foraging, we might have reckoned ourselves lucky. But our straits increased day by day; and sheer plundering ...

— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XVIII. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great--Seven-Years War Rises to a Height.--1757-1759. • Thomas Carlyle

... was plundered, Mahummud ordered the civil magistrate to raze the house and monument; and while that was doing, he carried away the mother and daughter to his palace. There it was he redoubled their affliction, by acquainting them with the caliph's will. "He commands me," ...

— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Complete • Anonymous

... the north of the Danube in the mountainous region of Transylvania, such as Caesar never encountered in all his Gaulish wars, the capital of Decebalus was taken, and he was forced to terms. He agreed to raze all fortresses, to surrender all weapons, prisoners, and Roman deserters, and to become a dependent prince under the suzerainty of Rome. Trajan came back to Italy with Dacian envoys, who in ancient style begged the Senate to confirm the conditions ...

— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 1 of 8 • Various

... minister to a mind diseased; Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow; Raze out the written troubles of ...

— Lessons in Life - A Series of Familiar Essays • Timothy Titcomb

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