WORD OF THE DAY
The verb extirpate originally meant "to weed out by the roots." Now you can use it more broadly to describe getting rid of something completely.
Use the verb extirpate when you mean to destroy completely or get rid of completely. If you came home from vacation with your luggage infested by bedbugs, you will need to call an exterminator to extirpate them. The dodo bird was extirpated due to hunting and the introduction of predators in their habitat.
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Vocabulary lists containing extirpate
When a plague ravages the city of Thebes, Oedipus hears a prophecy that begins to unravel everything he thought was true.
After a shipwreck, a group of noblemen wash up on an enchanted island ruled by the magician Prospero.
In this powerful speech delivered on July 5, 1852, abolitionist Frederick Douglass argued that the practice of slavery was antithetical to the American values of liberty and freedom.
As you read Thomas Paine's “Common Sense” (etext found here), learn this word list of 50 words.
