eliminate
verbUK /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/ · US /ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin ēlīminātus, perfect passive participle of ēlīminō (“to turn out of doors, banish”), from ē- + līmen (“a threshold”, līmin- in compounds) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), akin to Latin līmes (“a boundary”); see also English limit and limen.
To completely remove, get rid of, put an end to.
- The air-handling equipment humidifies, dehumidifies, and distributes the correct amount of fresh air into every zone and eliminates all smoke, dust, and odors, with electric precipitrons.1949, Proceedings of the ... Consolidated Convention of the International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers, Iron Ship Builders, and Helpers of America, page 159:
- The real savings of OCR come from the elimination of redundant keyboardings of the same data; from eliminating multiple verification steps; from reducing the number of documents needed to complete a transaction; […]1977 June 13, Computerworld, volume 11, number 24, page 91:
4 more examples
- […] it should be possible to eliminate most of these mental "costs" by improving the e-shopping systems.2002, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Wolfgang Fritz, Ruby Roy Dholakia, Global E-commerce and Online Marketing: Watching the Evolution:
- Flutter, which is present in most iris-supported lenses, is minimized or virtually eliminated.1965, Nicholas G. Douvas, New Orleans Academy of Ophthalmology, Symposium on Cataracts, Mosby, page 133:
- “The Budget proposes eliminating Supporting Effective Instruction (SEI) State Grants (Title II State grants), a program that provides formula funds to States to improve the quality and effectiveness of teachers, principals, and other schools leaders. SEI grants are poorly targeted and funds are spread too thinly to have a meaningful impact on student outcomes.2017 May 23, Gregory Krieg and Will Mullery, “Trump’s budget by the numbers: What gets cut and why”, in CNN:
- Last year, the company eliminated hundreds of jobs and asked some of the remaining staff to take on the responsibilities of those who were let go.2020 August 4, Jason Schreier, “Blizzard Employees Share Salaries With Each Other to Protest Wage Disparities”, in Time, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2020:
Government, Military, Politics, War To render (a facility) unusable, to destroy it; to disable (a soldier), make them unable to fight (typically but not necessarily by killing)
Slang To kill (a person or animal).
- a ruthless mobster who eliminated his enemies
Medicine, Physiology, Sciences Ambitransitive To excrete (waste products).
- In one study, 65.8% of the cat owners relinquishing a cat thought that their cat eliminated outside the litter box or destroyed furniture to spite them.2015, Ilona Rodan, Sarah Heath, editors, Feline Behavioral Health and Welfare, Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN, page 7:
To exclude (from investigation or from further competition).
- Bill was eliminated as a suspect when the police interviewed witnesses.
- John was eliminated as a contestant when it was found he had gained, rather than lost, weight.
Accounting, Business, Finance To record amounts in a consolidation statement to remove the effects of inter-company transactions.
- Derived terms
- eliminatrix
- Related terms
- eliminable, eliminant, elimination, eliminative, eliminator, eliminatory
- Hyponyms
- give the chop to, give the boot to, give the sack to, give the walking papers to