exterminate

English

WOTD – 30 November 2014

Etymology

From Latin exterminātus, perfect passive participle of exterminō, itself from ex- + terminō (“I finish, close, end”) (from terminus (“limit, end”)).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ɛkˈstəː.mɪ.neɪt/, /ɪkˈstəː.mɪ.neɪt/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ɪkˈstɝ.mɪ.neɪt/, /ɛkˈstɝ.mɪ.neɪt/
  • Audio (US)(file)

Verb

exterminate (third-person singular simple present exterminates, present participle exterminating, simple past and past participle exterminated)

  1. (transitive) To kill all of a population, usually deliberate and especially applied to pests.
    We'll use poison to exterminate the rats.
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To bring a definite end to, finish completely. A rather strong word that implies that what has been ended won't resurface.
    Even a mass birching at the public school failed to exterminate truancy.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Latin

Verb

extermināte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of exterminō
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