obliterate
Other forms: obliterated; obliterating; obliterates
When you see obliterate, think of evil alien invaders that zap a planet with a destructive ray. In one blast, the planet and all of the people on it are vaporized. The planet is truly obliterated, or completely wiped out.
A long time ago, obliterate had to do with blotting out words on a page. This is why you see the word literate in there. Today it means to erase or destroy completely so that there is nothing left. While you can still obliterate text, you can also obliterate hope, an opponent, or all traces of your presence. Whatever you obliterate is completely gone.
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remove completely from recognition or memory
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do away with completely, without leaving a trace
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synonyms:
annihilate
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type of:
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do away with, eliminate, extinguish, get rid of
terminate, end, or take out
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do away with, eliminate, extinguish, get rid of
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mark for deletion, rub off, or erase
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make undecipherable or imperceptible by obscuring or concealing
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reduced to nothingness
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synonyms:
blotted out, obliterated
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destroyed
spoiled or ruined or demolished
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destroyed
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A paragraph of text
Copy citationVocabulary lists containing obliterate
After her grandfather becomes sick, eleven-year-old Maizy moves from Los Angeles to Last Chance, Minnesota, where she struggles to fit in as her family's Chinese restaurant is targeted with racist attacks.
After Earth is destroyed by a comet, twelve-year-old Petra Peña wakes up on a new planet and discovers she is the only one who remembers Earth. She must use her stories and her wits to save humanity's legacy.
Based on a true story, this historical novel follows twelve-year-old Petra and her family as they flee their home during the Mexican Revolution and travel through battlefields and deserts to find a better life in the United States.
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