delete
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /dɪˈliːt/
ipa: /diˈliːt/
ipa: /dəˈliːt/
rhymes: -iːt
Forms: form: deletes
form: deleting
form: deleted
form: deleted
Etymology: From Latin dēlētus, past participle of dēlēre (“destroy, blot out, efface”), from dēlēvī, originally perf. tense of dēlinere (“to daub, erase by smudging”), from dē- (“from, away”) + linere (“to smear, wipe”). Original sense first appears c. 1495. In common use for ordering the absence of features of products (such as automobiles) in the 1960s. The computing sense, including the noun form, first appears c. 1977 in Software: Practice & Experience. Not related to deleterious.
Senses: examples: text: Early on in the model year [1968] Pontiac experienced some production problems [in producing polyurethane bumpers] regarding fit, matching paint color, and bonding the material to the base metal. As a result, 2,108 1968 GTOs left the factory with chrome bumpers borrowed from the LeMans. These cars had a special option on their order sheets called "Endura bumper delete." Everyone wanted the Endura bumpers and no one ordered that option of his or her own free will. As soon as Pontiac worked out the production problems the chrome bumpers disappeared for good and "Endura bumper delete" disappeared from the option list.
ref: 2009, Darwin Holmstrom, “Chapter 4: a maturing car for a maturing audience”, in GTO: Pontiac's Great One, Crestline Books, →ISBN, page 166:
synonyms: erase
clear
strike
terminate
remove
antonyms: insert
maintain
restore
stet#Verb
glosses: To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.
examples: text: Also I got deleted by a rogue and druid who were both invisible and just popped up and cleaned me.
ref: 2020 November 20, “Enhance Arena positioning”, in Blizzard Forums (US):
topics: games
gaming
glosses: To defeat or dominate.
examples: text: "Go find this guy, Alex," Conch had said. "And delete him."
ref: 2008, Ted Bell, Assassin:
text: "[…]The less we discover about him, the more we are convinced he needs to be deleted..."
[…]
"Yes. In other words I kill a terrorist, right?"
ref: 2013, Tim Corkery, Funny to Horror: Short Stories:
text: I'm a forty-something psychopath who thinks he has the right to delete anyone he sees fit.
ref: 2015, Shane Kuhn, The Intern's Handbook, page 220:
text: She either felt pity for him and put him out of pain, a ridiculous, untrue solution for pity and sorrow are delusions, or she was part of his triangle had to delete him before he spoke again, he had to be silenced.
ref: 2017, Bill Dixon, Dragonfire: A New World of Poems and Stories:
glosses: To kill or murder.
Synonyms: word: erase
word: clear
word: strike
word: terminate
word: remove
word: redact
word: rub out
word: strike out
word: obliterate
word: cancel
word: cross out
word: score
word: scrub
word: scrap
word: scratch
word: expunge
word: eliminate
word: blue-pencil
word: exclude
word: squelch
Derived terms: autodelete
deletability
deletable
deletant
deletee
deleter
deletia
deletion
deletive
expletive deleted
nondeleting
redelete
self-delete
soft-delete
speedy delete
undelete
Related terms: word: delible
word: diminish