“obliterates” is a form of
obliterate
UK /əˈblɪtəɹeɪt/ · US /əˈblɪtəˌɹeɪt/ verb, adjective
Forms obliterates obliterating obliterated obliteratest obliteratedst obliterateth
- verb To destroy (someone or something) completely, leaving no trace; to annihilate, to wipe out.
- verb To hide (something) by covering it; to conceal, to obscure. “The rainclouds obliterated the sun as they swept across the sky.”
- verb (also figuratively) 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.
- verb (biology, pathology, surgery, chiefly passive voice) 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).
- verb (philately) To cancel (a postage stamp) with a postmark so it cannot be reused.
- verb To be destroyed completely, leaving no trace.
- verb (biology, pathology) Of a body cavity, vessel, etc.: to close up or fill with tissue; of perfusion or a pulse: to cease owing to obstruction. “distal pulses obliterate until perfusion is restored”
- adjective (except poetic) Completely destroyed or erased; effaced, obliterated.
- adjective (entomology, rare) Of markings on an insect: difficult to distinguish from the background; faint, indistinct.
Synonyms
bedash do away with eradicate extirpate raze uproot destroy annihilate aerosolize atomize benothing bewreck blot out blotto dash decompose demolish desolate devastate diffuse kill wipe out obscure veil hide efface blotted out obliterated
Etymology
(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”).
* 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”)
Learned borrowing from Latin obliterātus (see more at Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix, of participial origin)).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To erase or blot out; to efface; to render undecipherable, as a writing.
- verb To wear out; to remove or destroy utterly by any means; to render imperceptible; as. to obliterate ideas; to obliterate the monuments of antiquity.
- adjective Scarcely distinct; --applied to the markings of insects.
Etymology [L. obliteratus, p.p. of obliterare to obliterate; ob (see Ob-) + litera, littera, letter. See Letter.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “obliterate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details