erase

erase (ɪˈreɪz)

—vb
1.	to obliterate or rub out (something written, typed, etc)
2.	(tr) to destroy all traces of; remove completely: time erases grief
3.	to remove (a recording) from (magnetic tape)
4.	(tr) computing to replace (data) on a storage device with characters representing an absence of data

[C17: from Latin ērādere to scrape off, from ex-¹ + rādere to scratch, scrape]

e'rasable

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

erase

c.1600, from L. erasus, pp. of eradere "scrape out," from ex- "out" + radere "to scrape" (see raze). Of magnetic tape, from 1945.

Slang Dictionary

erase definition

tv.
to kill someone. : Mr. Gutman decided who was gonna erase who.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

erase definition

delete

Example sentences from the web

After a scream of pain from the victim, they erase his memory and send him back to earth.

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efface eliminate eradicate erasing head erasion expunge

Matching Quote

"A person taking stock in middle age is like an artist or composer looking at an unfinished work; but whereas the composer and the painter can erase some of their past efforts, we cannot. We are stuck with what we have lived through. The trick is to finish it with a sense of design and a flourish rather than to patch up the holes or merely to add new patches to it."

-Harry S. Broudy