extirpate

verb, adj — 7 senses

extirpate

verb

UK /ˈɛkstəpeɪt/ · US /ˈɛkstɚpeɪt/

Etymology The verb is first attested in 1538, the adjective in 1541; borrowed from Latin exstirpātus perfect passive participle of exstirpō (“to uproot”), from ex- (“out of”) + stirps (“the lower part of the trunk of a tree, including the roots; the stem, stalk”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)). Doublet of extirp. Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

1

Obsolete To clear an area of roots and stumps.

2

To pull up by the roots; uproot.

3

To destroy completely; to annihilate.

  • But you are not Hercules; nor able to extirpate the Evils of others: nor even Theſeus, to extirpate the Evils of Attica. Extirpate your own then.1758, Epictetus, translated by Elizabeth Carter, All the Works of Epictetus Which are Now Extant; Consisting of His Discourses, Preserved by Arrian, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments, The Discourses of Epictetus, book II, chapter XVI, page 172:
  • The simple object was to expel the natives, and to extirpate the Catholic religion.1870, M[ary] F[rances] Cusack, chapter XIX, in The Student's Manual of Irish History, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 309:
1 more example
  • They [steam trains] are everything modern life tries to extirpate in favour of silence, smoothness and cleanness.2022 February 23, Benedict le Vay, “Part of rail's past... present... and future”, in RAIL, number 951, page 56:
4

Biology, Natural sciences To cause a population to go extinct in a particular region, but not across the entire range of the species or subspecies.

  • The cougar was extirpated across nearly all of its eastern North American range in the two centuries after European colonization.
5

To surgically remove.

Related terms
extirp, extirpation, extirpative, extirpator

extirpate

adj

Etymology The verb is first attested in 1538, the adjective in 1541; borrowed from Latin exstirpātus perfect passive participle of exstirpō (“to uproot”), from ex- (“out of”) + stirps (“the lower part of the trunk of a tree, including the roots; the stem, stalk”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)). Doublet of extirp. Common participial usage of the adjective up until Early Modern English.

1

Obsolete, As a participle Extirpated

  • It is profitable […] to haue all occasions of sedicion […] to be extirpate.1541, Thomas Elyot, Image of Governance:
2

Obsolete, As a participial adjective Rooted out, extinct, utterly destroyed.

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.

Learn more