extermine

See also: exterminé

English

Etymology

French exterminer, from Latin extermino.

Verb

extermine (third-person singular simple present extermines, present participle extermining, simple past and past participle extermined)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To exterminate (someone or something); to destroy.
   • c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene v]:

     VVherever ſorrovv is, relief vvould be. / If you do ſorrovv at my grief in love, / By giving love your ſorrovv and my grief / VVere both extermined.

   • 1874, Charles Kingsley, “Superstition. A Lecture Delivered at the Royal Institution, London.”, in Health and Education, London: W. Isbister & Co. […], →OCLC, page 234:

     Without the instinct of self-preservation, which causes the sea-anemone to contract its tentacles, or the fish to dash into its hover, species would be extermined wholesale by involuntary suicide.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “extermine”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛk.stɛʁ.min/

Verb

extermine

1. inflection of exterminer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: ex‧ter‧mi‧ne

Verb

extermine

1. inflection of exterminar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /eɡsteɾˈmine/ [eɣ̞s.t̪eɾˈmi.ne]
• Rhymes: -ine
• Syllabification: ex‧ter‧mi‧ne

Verb

extermine

1. inflection of exterminar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative