exterminate

English

WOTD – 30 November 2013, 30 November 2014

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin exterminātus, perfect passive participle of exterminō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from ex- (“thoroughly”) + terminō (“to finish, close, end”), from terminus (“limit, end”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix).

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 or otherwise permanently eliminate all of (a population, often of pests or undesirables), usually intentionally.

   We'll use poison to exterminate the rats.

   • 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 142:

     The natives everywhere eat their [sc. cuscuses] flesh, and as their motions are so slow, easily catch them by climbing; so that it is wonderful they have not been exterminated. It may be, however, that their dense woolly fur protects them from birds of prey, and the islands they live in are too thinly inhabited for man to be able to exterminate them.

   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Geth Codex entry:

     The geth are a humanoid race of networked A.I.s. They were created by the quarians 300 years ago as tools of labor and war. When the geth showed signs of self-evolution, the quarians attempted to exterminate them. The geth won the resulting war. This example has led to legal, systematic repression of artificial intelligences in galactic society.

   • 2018 December 1, Drachinifel, 10:12 from the start, in Anti-Slavery Patrols - The West Africa Squadron‎^[1], archived from the original on 29 November 2024:

     Somewhat unsurprisingly, unleashing the most powerful navy on the planet with carte blanche to exterminate slavers on sight saw a dramatic and sudden collapse in slaver numbers in the late 1840s and early 1850s.

2. (figuratively, transitive) To bring a definite end to; to finish completely.

   The public school failed to exterminate truancy.

Synonyms

• (to kill all): annihilate, eradicate, extermine, uproot
• (to bring an end to): stamp out
• See also Thesaurus:destroy

Derived terms

• exterminatable
• extermination
• exterminative
• exterminator
• exterminatory
• exterminatrix
• exterminism

Related terms

• terminate
• termination
• terminator

Translations

to kill all of a population

• Bashkir: ҡырыу (qırıw)
• Bulgarian: изтребвам (bg) (iztrebvam)
• Catalan: exterminar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 滅絕 / 灭绝 (zh) (mièjué)

• Czech: vyhladit, vyhubit (cs)
• Danish: udrydde
• Dutch: uitroeien (nl), verdelgen (nl)
• Finnish: hävittää (fi), tappaa kokonaan
• French: exterminer (fr)
• German: ausrotten (de)
• Greek: εξολοθρεύω (el) (exolothrévo), εξοντώνω (el) (exontóno)
• Hebrew: חיסל
• Italian: sterminare (it)
• Ladino: eksterminar
• Macedonian: истреби (istrebi)
• Māori: haepapa, hoepapa, whakamōtī, tipihauraro
• Persian: ریشه‌کن کردن (riše-kan kardan)
• Portuguese: exterminar (pt), erradicar (pt)
• Romanian: exterminare (ro) f
• Russian: истребля́ть (ru) impf (istrebljátʹ), истреби́ть (ru) pf (istrebítʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: истребити, istrebiti (sh)
• Spanish: exterminar (es)
• Thai: ทำลายล้าง (th), ฆ่าล้าง, กวาดล้าง (th) (gwàat-láang), ล้างบาง
• Turkish: kökünü kurutmak
• Ukrainian: вини́щувати (vynýščuvaty), виво́дити (vyvódyty) (pests, parasites)
• Yiddish: פֿאַרטיליקן (fartilikn)

to bring a definite end to, finish completely

• Bulgarian: унищожавам (bg) (uništožavam)
• Catalan: exterminar (ca)
• Dutch: afmaken (nl), beëindigen (nl), uitroeien (nl)
• Finnish: hävittää (fi), kitkeä (fi), juuria (fi)
• Greek: επιτυγχάνω (el) (epityncháno)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: لەناوبردن (lenawbirdin)

• Ladino: eksterminar
• Portuguese: exterminar (pt), aniquilar (pt)
• Russian: уничтожа́ть (ru) impf (uničtožátʹ), уничто́жить (ru) pf (uničtóžitʹ)
• Spanish: despalillar (es), exterminar (es)
• Yiddish: פֿאַרטיליקן (fartilikn)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} exterminer (fr), ^{(please verify)} anéantir (fr)
• German: ^{(please verify)} ausrotten (de)

Latin

Verb

extermināte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of exterminō

Spanish

Verb

exterminate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of exterminar combined with te