eliminate

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UK/ɪˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/US/ɪˈlɪm.ə.neɪt/US/iˈlɪm.ɪ.neɪt/US/iˈlɪm.ə.neɪt/

verb

To completely remove, get rid of, put an end to.

“a ruthless mobster who eliminated his enemies”

Meanings

verbeliminate (third-person singular simple present eliminates, present participle eliminating, simple past and past participle eliminated)

present singular third person eliminates · participle present eliminating · participle past eliminated · past eliminated

  1. transitiveTo completely remove, get rid of, put an end to.

    Flutter, which is present in most iris-supported lenses, is minimized or virtually eliminated.

    1965, Nicholas G. Douvas, New Orleans Academy of Ophthalmology, Symposium on Cataracts, Mosby, page 133
    5 more examples

    The air-handling equipment humidifies, dehumidifies, and distributes the correct amount of fresh air into every zone and eliminates all smoke, dust, and odors, with electric precipitrons.

    1949, Proceedings of the ... Consolidated Convention of the International Brotherhood of Boiler Makers, Iron Ship Builders, and Helpers of America, page 159

    The real savings of OCR come from the elimination of redundant keyboardings of the same data; from eliminating multiple verification steps; from reducing the number of documents needed to complete a transaction; […]

    1977 June 13, Computerworld, volume 11, number 24, page 91

    […] it should be possible to eliminate most of these mental "costs" by improving the e-shopping systems.

    2002, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Wolfgang Fritz, Ruby Roy Dholakia, Global E-commerce and Online Marketing: Watching the Evolution

    “The Budget proposes eliminating Supporting Effective Instruction (SEI) State Grants (Title II State grants), a program that provides formula funds to States to improve the quality and effectiveness of teachers, principals, and other schools leaders. SEI grants are poorly targeted and funds are spread too thinly to have a meaningful impact on student outcomes.

    2017 May 23, Gregory Krieg and Will Mullery, “Trump’s budget by the numbers: What gets cut and why”, in CNN

    Last year, the company eliminated hundreds of jobs and asked some of the remaining staff to take on the responsibilities of those who were let go.

    2020 August 4, Jason Schreier, “Blizzard Employees Share Salaries With Each Other to Protest Wage Disparities”, in Time, archived from the original on 06 Aug 2020

    Synonyms: abrogate, abolish, erase, destroy, annihilate, aerosolize, atomize, benothing

  2. transitivegovernmentTo render (a facility) unusable, to destroy it; to disable (a soldier), make them unable to fight (typically but not necessarily by killing)

    Synonyms: neutralize

  3. slangtransitiveTo kill (a person or animal).

    a ruthless mobster who eliminated his enemies

  4. ambitransitivemedicineTo excrete (waste products).

    In one study, 65.8% of the cat owners relinquishing a cat thought that their cat eliminated outside the litter box or destroyed furniture to spite them.

    2015, Ilona Rodan, Sarah Heath, editors, Feline Behavioral Health and Welfare, Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN, page 7

    Synonyms: break the seal, hit the head, micturate, pass water, pee, piddle, piss, slash

  5. transitiveTo exclude (from investigation or from further competition).

    Bill was eliminated as a suspect when the police interviewed witnesses.

    1 more example

    John was eliminated as a contestant when it was found he had gained, rather than lost, weight.

  6. accountingTo record amounts in a consolidation statement to remove the effects of inter-company transactions.

Synonyms & antonyms

verbTo render (a facility) unusable, to destroy it; to disable (a soldier), make them unable to fight (typically but not necessarily by killing)

Similar
Narrower
give the chop togive the boot togive the sack togive the walking papers to

More synonyms by meaning

verbterminate, end, or take out

verbget rid of something

Similar
obviaterid of

verbkill in large numbers

Broader

verbdismiss from consideration or a contest

Similar
rule outwinnow outreject

verbeliminate from the body

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

  1. Latinēlīminātus
  2. Englisheliminate

Borrowed from Latin ēlīminātus, perfect passive participle of ēlīminō (“to turn out of doors, banish”), from ē- + līmen (“a threshold”, līmin- in compounds) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), akin to Latin līmes (“a boundary”); see also English limit and limen.

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Bulgarian премахвам, елиминирам
  • премахвам (premahvam)completely destroy
  • елиминирам (eliminiram)completely destroy
  • убивам (ubivam)kill
Catalan eliminar
  • eliminarcompletely destroy
Chinese Mandarin 消滅 /消灭, 消除
  • 消滅 /消灭 (xiāomiè)completely destroy
  • 消除 (xiāochú)completely destroy
  • 根除 (gēnchú)completely destroy
  • 抹殺 /抹杀 (mǒshā)kill
  • 除掉 (chúdiào)kill
  • 殺 /杀 (shā)kill
  • 排出 (páichū)excrete
Czech odstranit, eliminovat
  • odstranitcompletely destroy
  • eliminovatcompletely destroy
Dutch elimineren
  • eliminerencompletely destroy
Finnish hävittää, tuhota
  • hävittääcompletely destroy
  • tuhotacompletely destroy
  • hankkiutua erooncompletely destroy
  • eliminoidacompletely destroy
  • eliminoidakill
  • listiäkill
  • nirhatakill
  • virtsataexcrete
  • ulostaaexcrete
  • eliminoidaeliminate the effects of intercompany transactions in a consolidation statement
French éliminer, tuer
  • éliminercompletely destroy
  • tuerkill
German eliminieren, zerstören
  • eliminierencompletely destroy
  • zerstörencompletely destroy
  • umbringenkill
  • eliminierenkill
  • beseitigenkill
Greek καθαρίζω, σκοτώνω
  • καθαρίζω (katharízo)kill
  • σκοτώνω (skotóno)kill
Hungarian kiküszöböl, felszámol
  • kiküszöbölcompletely destroy
  • felszámolcompletely destroy
  • kiirtcompletely destroy
  • megsemmisítcompletely destroy
Irish deireadh
  • deireadhcompletely destroy
Italian eliminare, eliminare
  • eliminarecompletely destroy
  • eliminarekill
Japanese 除去する, 抹殺する
  • 除去する (jokyo-suru)completely destroy
  • 抹殺する (massatsu-suru)kill
  • 殺す (koro-su)kill
  • 殺害する (satsugai-suru)kill
Korean 제거하다
  • 제거하다 (jegeohada)kill
Māori whakamōtī
  • whakamōtīcompletely destroy
Polish likwidować, zlikwidować
  • likwidowaćcompletely destroy
  • zlikwidowaćcompletely destroy
  • eliminowaćcompletely destroy
  • wyeliminowaćcompletely destroy
Portuguese eliminar
  • eliminarcompletely destroy
Russian ликвиди́ровать, ликвиди́ровать
  • ликвиди́ровать (likvidírovatʹ)completely destroy
  • ликвиди́ровать (likvidírovatʹ)kill
  • уничтожа́ть (uničtožátʹ)kill
  • уничто́жить (uničtóžitʹ)kill
Spanish eliminar
  • eliminarcompletely destroy
Swedish förgöra, eliminera
  • förgöracompletely destroy
  • elimineracompletely destroy
Turkish temizlemek
  • temizlemekkill
Ukrainian ліквідувати, ліквідувати
  • ліквідувати (likviduvaty)completely destroy
  • ліквідувати (likviduvaty)kill
  • знищити (znyščyty)kill

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

eliminate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eliminate

MLA

“eliminate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eliminate. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “eliminate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/eliminate.

Source: eliminate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.