extirpate.

1. To eliminate something completely, removing it so that it cannot persist locally.

2. To remove a plant or growth by pulling out its roots.

3. To remove a body part or tissue completely through surgical excision.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• extirpate a population
• extirpate a doctrine
• extirpate an infestation

On the page

The council vowed to extirpate the cult, but its symbols remained beneath the plaster.

Usage notes

Primary category: horror / gothic literary. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: extirpate; extirpates; extirpated; extirpated; extirpating Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: Complete destruction/removal; uprooting in kids definition; surgical removal in dictionary search and medical extirpation section listing extirpate verb. Individual writer usefulness checked for a distinct physical, ritual, facial or acoustic function. Definitions/examples are original; genre suitability is not an inherent emotional rating. Writing functions: precise physical or ritual description, gothic scene construction. Third-person singular: extirpates.