obliterate
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: biology
hobbies
lifestyle
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
philately
sciences
surgery
Etymology: PIE word
 *h₁epi
(start of 17th century) From earlier obliterat, learned borrowing from Latin obliterātus, oblitterātus (“having been blotted out, effaced, erased; having been forgotten”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix, of participial origin)). Obliterātus and oblitterātus are respectively the perfect passive participles of obliterō and oblitterō (“to blot out, efface, erase, obliterate; to cause to be forgotten”), probably either:
* from ob- (prefix meaning ‘against; towards’) + littera (“letter of the alphabet; (metonymically) handwriting”) (further etymology unknown); or
* from oblītus (“disregarded, neglected; forgotten”), influenced by littera. Oblītus is the perfect passive participle of oblinō (“to daub over, besmear”), from ob- + possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ- (“not heavy, light; brief; swift”).
Cognates
* Catalan obliterar (“to erase; to cancel (a stamp); to close up or fill (a body cavity, vessel, etc.)”)
* Middle French oblitérer (modern French oblitérer (“to cause (memories) to fade; to block, obstruct; to cancel (a stamp, ticket, etc.) so it cannot be reused”))
* Portuguese obliterar (“to destroy completely; to erase”)
* Spanish obliterar (“to destroy completely; to erase”)
Inflected forms:
form: obliterates
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: obliterating
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: obliterated
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: obliterated
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: obliterate
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: obliterate
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: obliterated
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: obliterate
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: obliteratest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: obliterated
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: obliteratedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: obliterates
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: obliterateth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: obliterated
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: obliterate
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: obliterated
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: obliterate
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: obliterated
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: obliterate
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: obliterating
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: obliterated
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
Senses:
gloss: To destroy (someone or something) completely, leaving no trace; to annihilate, to wipe out.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: [H]e [Pope Gregory I] deſigned to obliterate and extinguiſh the memorie of Heathen antiquitie and Authors.
This opinion ſeemeth to me, to leave very little or no place for the Chriſtian Religion. For […] It obliterateth the notion of Gods Holineſs, vvhich to be no Holineſs, but a common or indifferent thing.
VVhen vve forget Things; either the Impreſſions are obliterated, or the Images diſſolved into their firſt Principles, or Exterminated from the Brain, vvith the Current of the Animal Spirits into the Nerves.
All tenderness for the feelings of others, all selfrespect, all sense of the becoming, were obliterated from his [George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys's] mind.
The Four Years' War is over— […] A new race, a young and lusty generation, already sweeps in with oceanic currents, obliterating the war, and all its scars, its mounded graves, and all its reminiscences of hatred, conflict, death. So let it be obliterated.
That is what distance does for us; the harsh and bitter feelings of this or that experience are slowly obliterated, and memory begins to look kindly on the past.
The seal of Pepi is in the House of Rurutȧ. The god who obliterateth sin, Ȧṭer-ȧsfet, obliterateth the transgressions which belong to Pepi in the presence of Khenti-merti in Sekhem.
Soham's station had been completely obliterated (the replacement was to close in 1965 and is only now being reopened).
The initial damage assessment suggests that President Trump’s claim that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “obliterated” was overstated.
gloss: To hide (something) by covering it; to conceal, to obscure.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: The rainclouds obliterated the sun as they swept across the sky.
Likevviſe the fragrancy of euery greene herbe yeeldeth ſuch a ſauour, as doth not a little obliterate and ouerſvvay the ſauour of the beaſt: […]
When the ſhadows of the evening are ſtretched out, […] when the veil, that is caſt over the face of nature, obliterateth the variety of colours which owe their being to the light, and aboliſheth all the diſtinction of objects thence ariſing, introducing a joyleſs and uncomfortable uniformity, and rendering it impoſſible for any to "go forth to their labour;" […] then it is that deep ſleep falleth upon man.
gloss: To make (a drawing, text which is printed or written, etc.) indecipherable, either by erasing or obscuring it; to blot out, to efface, to delete.
pos: verb
tags: also
figuratively
transitive
examples: The Senate approuing all that vvas done, decreed that his name ſhould bee obliterated out of all monuments in Rome, and neuer any Antoninus (a name before very gratious) ſhould rule againe their Empire: ſo odious vvas the remembrance of this Image of Ignominy.
[A]s one foule blot or daſh vvith a pen defaceth a vvhole vvriting, ſo one foule and enormous crime daſheth and obliterateth the faireſt copy of a vertuous life.
As vvhen a name lodg'd in the memory, / But yet through time almoſt obliterate, / Confuſely hovers near the phantaſie: / The man that's thus affected bids relate / A catologue of names.
Becauſe our Conſcience is ſprinkled by the blood of Chriſt, vvhich defaceth and obliterateth all thoſe black Items, that othervviſe vvould be continually calling upon us.
Blessed art thou, O Lord, universal King! who pardonest and forgivest our sins, and the sins of thy people Israel, and obliteratest our guilt year after year; […]
The walls had been rudely painted, (for arras then was rare, even among the wealthiest,) but the colours were half obliterated by time and damp.
At least she could not be comfortable there till long years should have obliterated her keen consciousness of it.
Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."
gloss: To impair the function and/or structure of (a body cavity, vessel, etc.) by ablating or occluding it (in the latter case, chiefly by filling it with tissue).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: In the developing embryo the foregut is surrounded by a group of vascular structures of bilateral distribution connected with the branchial arches. Portions of these arches are obliterated to form the normally described aorta and great vessels. The ultimate persistence of only one main vascular arch, the left, as the aorta, permits the trachea and oesophagus to lie freely to its right side.
The pleural sac was obliterated by firm fibrous adhesions over the right upper lobe.
Compression of an aneurysm of the left carotid artery should obliterate only the pulses of the distribution of this artery, not those of the femoral arteries. If the mass is an aneurysm of the right common carotid artery, manual compression should obliterate the distribution of this vessel and, because of its location, may also obliterate the vessels of the right arm. However, femoral pulsations should be preserved.
gloss: To cancel (a postage stamp) with a postmark so it cannot be reused.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To be destroyed completely, leaving no trace.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: Of a body cavity, vessel, etc.: to close up or fill with tissue; of perfusion or a pulse: to cease owing to obstruction.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: distal pulses obliterate until perfusion is restored
Related words: obliteration
obliviate
oblivion
Derived words: abliterate
obliterable
obliterated
obliterating
obliteratingly
obliterative
obliterator
obliterature
unobliterable
unobliterated
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: hävittää
lang: Finnish
word: tuhota