From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Exterminate \Ex*ter"mi*nate\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Exterminated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Exterminating}.] [L. exterminatus, p. p. of exterminare to abolish, destroy, drive out or away; ex out + terminus boundary, limit. See {Term}.]
1. To drive out or away; to expel.
They deposed, exterminated, and deprived him of communion. --Barrow.
2. To destroy utterly; to cut off; to extirpate; to annihilate; to root out; as, to exterminate a colony, a tribe, or a nation; to exterminate error or vice.
To explode and exterminate rank atheism. --Bentley.
3. (Math.) To eliminate, as unknown quantities. [R.]
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
verb
1: kill en masse; kill on a large scale; kill many; "Hitler wanted to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and homosexuals of Europe" [syn: {kill off}]
2: destroy completely, as if down to the roots; "the vestiges of political democracy were soon uprooted" [syn: {uproot}, {eradicate}, {extirpate}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
72 Moby Thesaurus words for "exterminate": abate, abolish, annihilate, bereave of life, blot out, bump off, butcher, carry away, carry off, cast off, chloroform, cut down, cut off, cut out, deprive of life, deracinate, destroy, dispatch, dispel, dispose of, do away with, do for, do to death, eliminate, end, eradicate, execute, extinguish, extirpate, finish, finish off, fling off, get rid of, immolate, kill, launch into eternity, liquidate, lynch, make away with, martyr, martyrize, massacre, murder, obliterate, poison, purge, put away, put down, put to death, put to sleep, remove, remove from life, root out, root up, rub out, sacrifice, shake off, shoo, slaughter, slay, stamp out, starve, sweep away, take life, take off, terminate, throw away, throw off, uproot, waste, weed out, wipe out
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