exterminate Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb kill en masse; kill on a large scale; kill many
    kill off.
    • Hitler wanted to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and homosexuals of Europe
  2. verb destroy completely, as if down to the roots
    uproot; root out; extirpate; eradicate.
    • the vestiges of political democracy were soon uprooted" "root out corruption

WordNet

Ex*ter"mi*nate transitive verb
Etymology
L. exterminatus, p. p. of exterminare to abolish, destroy, drive out or away; ex out + terminus boundary, limit. See Term.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Exterminated; present participle & verbal noun Exterminating
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913