Word of the Day

Sunday, January 30, 2005

extirpate

\EK-stur-payt\ , transitive verb;

To pull up by the stem or root.

To destroy completely.

To remove by surgery.

Read the full entry|See synonyms|Comment on today's word

Quotes:

A plant growing where it shouldn't is a weed. An object for which you have no need or sentimental attachment is garbage. Extirpate the one, toss the other.

-- Philip Kennicott, "The Symphony's Misbegotten 'Moon'", Washington Post, January 14, 2000

There had been no great missionary impulse in the Turkish incursions, no urge to extirpate the old ways.

-- Fouad Ajami, "The Glory Days of the Grand Turk", New York Times, May 2, 1999

If Soviet espionage or capitalist plots against the Soviet Union are malignant growths, it requires a professional to extirpate them by methods as unkind to random bystanders as radiation may be to healthy tissue.

-- Robert Leachman, "Super Thrillers and Super Powers", New York Times, February 19, 1984

Origin:

Extirpate derives from Latin ex(s)tirpare, "to tear up by the root, hence to root out, to extirpate," from ex-, "from" + stirps, "the stalk or stem or a tree or other plant, with the roots."