extermination


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ex·ter·mi·nate

 (ĭk-stûr′mə-nāt′)
tr.v. ex·ter·mi·nat·ed, ex·ter·mi·nat·ing, ex·ter·mi·nates
To get rid of by destroying completely: exterminated the termites that were weakening the wall. See Synonyms at annihilate.

[Latin extermināre, extermināt-, to drive out : ex-, ex- + termināre, to mark boundaries (from terminus, boundary marker).]

ex·ter′mi·na′tion n.
ex·ter′mi·na′tive, ex·ter′mi·na·to′ry (-nə-tôr′ē) adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.extermination - complete annihilationextermination - complete annihilation; "they think a meteor cause the extinction of the dinosaurs"
annihilation, disintegration - total destruction; "bomb tests resulted in the annihilation of the atoll"
2.extermination - the act of exterminating
destruction, devastation - the termination of something by causing so much damage to it that it cannot be repaired or no longer exists
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

extermination

noun destruction, murder, massacre, slaughter, killing, wiping out, genocide, elimination, ethnic cleansing (euphemistic), mass murder, annihilation, eradication, extirpation the extermination of thousands of innocent people
Quotations
"We seem to be in the midst of an era of delirious ferocity, with half of mankind hell bent upon exterminating the other half" [H.L. Mencken]
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

extermination

noun
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
إبادَه، إفْناء، قَضاء عَلى
udryddelseudslettelse
útrÿming
ortadan kaldırmayok etme

extermination

[eksˌtɜːmɪˈneɪʃən] N [of people] → exterminio m; [of pests] → exterminación f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

extermination

[ɪkˌstɜːrmɪˈneɪʃən] nextermination f
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

extermination

nAusrottung f, → Vernichtung f; (of disease, beliefs, ideas)Ausrottung f
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

extermination

[ɪksˌtɜːmɪˈneɪʃn] nsterminio
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

exterminate

(ikˈstəːmineit) verb
to get rid of or destroy completely. Rats must be exterminated from a building or they will cause disease.
exˌtermiˈnation noun
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
"Extermination is good doctrine, my wife," said Defarge, rather troubled; "in general, I say nothing against it.
"Yet they never carry their expeditions to a point, as one might readily believe it was in their power to do, where the extermination of the race of therns is threatened.
Though so short a period ago --not a good life-time --the census of the buffalo in Illinois exceeded the census of men now in London, and though at the present day not one horn or hoof of them remains in all that region; and though the cause of this wondrous extermination was the spear of man; yet the far different nature of the whale-hunt peremptorily forbids so inglorious an end to the Leviathan.
It seemed as though the Priests had no choice between submission and extermination; when suddenly the course of events was completely changed by one of those picturesque incidents which Statesmen ought never to neglect, often to anticipate, and sometimes perhaps to originate, because of the absurdly disproportionate power with which they appeal to the sympathies of the populace.
Kutuzov even imagined that Napoleon's army might turn back through Medyn and Yukhnov, but the one thing he could not foresee was what happened- the insane, convulsive stampede of Napoleon's army during its first eleven days after leaving Moscow: a stampede which made possible what Kutuzov had not yet even dared to think of- the complete extermination of the French.
The Fire-Men were everywhere, bent on their task of extermination. Every way we turned we encountered them, and because of this we saw much of their handiwork.
When Adam got back to Lesser Hill, he went to the coach-house where the box with the mongoose was kept, and took it with him, intending to finish at the Mound of Stone what he had begun the previous morning with regard to the extermination. He found that the snakes were even more easily attacked than on the previous day; no less than six were killed in the first half-hour.
The tribes living near the Nile are hostile to each other, and are continually waging a war of extermination. You may form some idea, then, of the difficulties he had to encounter."
This programme of extermination was so terrible that the prisoners looked upon one another in a panic of fear.
On a small island, the race for life will have been less severe, and there will have been less modification and less extermination. Hence, perhaps, it comes that the flora of Madeira, according to Oswald Heer, resembles the extinct tertiary flora of Europe.
But as we neared Zodanga their personal quarrels were submerged by their greater hatred for the red men, and especially for the Zodangans, who had for years waged a ruthless campaign of extermination against the green men, directing special attention toward despoiling their incubators.
The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immi- grants, in the space of fifty years.