extirpate
UK /ˈɛkstəpeɪt/ · US /ˈɛkstɚpeɪt/ verb, adjective
Forms extirpates extirpating extirpated
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To clear an area of roots and stumps.
- verb (transitive) To pull up by the roots; uproot.
- verb (transitive) To destroy completely; to annihilate.
- verb (biology) To cause a population to go extinct in a particular region, but not across the entire range of the species or subspecies. “The cougar was extirpated across nearly all of its eastern North American range in the two centuries after European colonization.”
- verb (transitive) To surgically remove.
- adjective (as a participle) Extirpated
- adjective (as a participial adjective) Rooted out, extinct, utterly destroyed.
Synonyms
uproot eradicate extricate deracinate annihilate destroy exterminate aerosolize atomize benothing bewreck blot out blotto dash decompose demolish desolate devastate diffuse disintegrate root out
Etymology
The verb is first attested in 1538, the adjective in 1541; borrowed from Latin exstirpātus perfect passive participle of exstirpō (“to uproot”), from ex- (“out of”) + stirps (“the lower part of the trunk of a tree, including the roots; the stem, stalk”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)). Doublet of extirp. Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To pluck up by the stem or root; to root out; to eradicate, literally or figuratively; to destroy wholly; as, to extirpate weeds; to extirpate a tumor; to extirpate a sect; to extirpate error or heresy.
Etymology [L. extirpatus, exstirpatus, p. p. of extirpare, exstirpare; ex out + strips stock, stem, root.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “extirpate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details