remove

present singular third person removes · participle present removing · participle past removed · past removed · first person past singular removed · archaic present second person singular removest · past second person singular removed · archaic past second person singular removedst · present singular third person removes · archaic present singular third person removeth · past singular third person removed · past plural removed · past subjunctive removed · participle present removing · participle past removed

1. transitiveTo delete.
2. transitiveTo move from one place to another, especially to take away.

   He removed the marbles from the bag.

   3 more examples

   Thou ſhalt not remoue thy neghbours marke which they of olde tyme haue ſett in thyne enheritaunce that thou enheretteſt in the londe which the Lorde thy God geueth the to enioye it.

   1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Deuteronomye xix:[14], folio XXXV, recto

   His first indication of coming events was to remove the key from the outside to the inside of the door.

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

   Now that she was rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety.

   1963, Margery Allingham, “Dangerous Lady”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 36

   1. formalobsoletetransitiveTo replace a dish within a course.

      But Richmond[…]appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw[…]that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.

      1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax

3. transitiveTo murder.
4. transitiveball gamesTo dismiss a batsman.
5. transitiveTo discard, set aside, especially something abstract (a thought, feeling, etc.).

   The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.

   2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10

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   Eternall thraldom was to her more liefe, / Then loſſe of chaſtitie, or chaunge of loue : / Dye had ſhe rather in tormenting griefe, / Then any ſhould of falſeneſſe her reproue, / Or looſeneſſe, that ſhe lightly did remoue.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 524

6. archaicintransitiveTo depart, to leave; to move oneself or be moved.

   […] you shall set your stakes at the brim of the water, each a yard apart, and so yedder them with your yedders, and so stake them with your strut stowers, that they may stand three tides without removing by the force thereof.

   1855, Francis Kildale Robinson, A Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases: Collected in Whitby and the Neighbourhood. With Examples of Their Colloquial Use, and Allusions to Local Customs and Trditions, page 129

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   THenne the kynge dyd doo calle syre Gawayne / syre Borce / syr Lyonel and syre Bedewere / and commaunded them to goo strayte to syre Lucius / and saye ye to hym that hastely he remeue oute of my land / And yf he wil not / bydde hym make hym redy to bataylle and not distresse the poure peple

   1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “vj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book V

7. archaicintransitiveTo change one's residence or place of business; to move.

   Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]

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   Now my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place where I lived.

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC

   Shortly after this, my father removed, and settled in the same county, about ten miles above Greenville.

   1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of, Nebraska, published 1987, page 20

   I am going to remove. / Where are you going to remove to? / I don't know yet. / When will you know?

   1886, Lim Hiong Seng, Handbook of the Swatow Vernacular, Singapore: Koh Yew Hean Press

   About a year ago we removed to the above address, which we leased on a five-year lease with privilege of cancellation in one year.

   1925, W. K. & Co., “How to Avoid a Controversy Over Fixtures Between Landlord and Tenant”, in American Independent Baker: Official Organ of the Retail Bakers, volume 23, page 20

8. transitiveTo dismiss or discharge (someone) from an official position or office.

   The President removed many postmasters.

   1 more example

   During this period, Officer Bu was officially removed from standard duty following a misconduct charge, as he tried to break into a women’s restroom at a police station.

   2026 September 3, Stutee, “Jang Mi-ran, 37, Vanished on Jeju Island in 2026. Her Mishandled Case Sparked a National Review of 310,000 Missing-Person Cases”, in Skip Boring, archived from the original on 03 Sep 2026

plural removes

1. The act of removing something.

   And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.

   1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or A Prospect of Society. A Poem. […], London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC

   2 more examples

   This place should be at once both school and university, not needing a remove to any other house of scholarship.

   [1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London]: […] [Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC

   There is no tree admits of transplantation so well as the Elm, for a tree of twenty years growth will admit of a remove.

   1761, John Mordant, The Complete Steward

2. historicalcookingA dish served to replace an earlier one during a meal; a part of a new course.

   An attempt at entrées and removes failed at the first dinner-party.

   1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter XIII, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 289

   1 more example

   A supper brings up the rear, not forgetting the introductory luncheon, almost equalling in removes the dinner.

   1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford, published 2009, page 16

3. UK(at some public schools) A division of the school, especially the form prior to last.
4. A step or gradation (as in the phrase "at one remove").

   A freeholder is but one remove from a legislator.

   1716 January 2 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 1. Thursday, December 23. 1715.”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC

   4 more examples

   That vve may underſtand the full extent of theſe relations, vve must conſider, that tvvo objects are connected together in the imagination, not only vvhen the one is immediately reſembling, contiguous to, or the cauſe of the other, but alſo vvhen there is interpoſed betwixt them a third object, vvhich bears to both of them any of theſe relations. This may be carried on to a great length; tho' at the ſame time vve may obſerve, that each remove conſiderably vveakens the relation.

   1739, [David Hume], “Of the Connexion or Association of Ideas”, in A Treatise of Human Nature: […], book I (Of the Understanding), London: […] John Noon, […], →OCLC, part I (Of Ideas; Their Origin, Composition, Connexion, Abstraction, &c.), page 28

   Thus though this degree of faith is but one remove from disbelief, (denial) nevertheless as much probability is given to one side of the question as the other, and we stand, as it were, on an average between two.

   1822, Paul Brown, “Of the Degrees of Faith, according to probability, and force of impression”, in A Disquisition on Faith, Washington, D.C.: […] [F]or the Author[, b]y Andrew Way, page 24

   In his unfortunate absence at this far remove of 2007, Zevon's musicianship and irascible wit are as missed as ever.

   2007, James D. McCallister, King's Highway, page 162

   They were standing in the foreshortened airlock approach now, having just left a gaggle of nervous techs and agents behind the sealed bulkhead. Nobody knew what they were about to unleash, so it was best to keep it as many removes from the rest of the Site as was possible. When they opened the vault door, the filtration systems would whir to life and start sifting the air for esoteric elements. Ibanez suspected it would be months before the approach was considered clean, the doors retracted and active air and pedestrian circulation restored.

   2022 September 9, HarryBlank, “The Mausoleum at Ipperwash”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 27 May 2024

5. Distance in time or space; interval.

   1 more example

   How many Masters have some stately Houses had, in the age of a small Cottage, that hath, as it were, lived, and dyed with her old Master, both dropping down together. Such vain Preservatories of us, are our Inheritances, even once removed: but look on it more Removes off, and continuing in thy Name, yet how little doth that concerne Thee (though the first Purchaser, or his Heire) Lazy Posterity, when they heare it so called know it by the Name, but not as thine; […]

   1654, Richard Whitlock, Zootomia; Or, Observations on the Present Manners of the English

6. broadlyfigurativelyEmotional distance or indifference.
7. broadlyfigurativelyState of mind allowing for a certain degree of objectivity in evaluating things.

   The fact that one structure applied in the rainy season and another in the dry allowed Nambikwara chiefs to view their own social arrangements at one remove: to see them as not simply “given”, in the natural order of things, but as something at least partially open to human intervention.

   2021 October 19, David Graeber, David Wengrowr, “Unfreezing the ice age: the truth about humanity’s deep past”, in The Guardian, UK

8. datedThe transfer of one's home or business to another place; a move.

   It is an English proverb that three removes are as bad as a fire.

   1855, John Henry Newman, Callista

9. The act of resetting a horse's shoe.

   His horse wanted two removes; your horse wanted nails

   1731 (date written; published 1745), [Jonathan] Swift, Directions to Servants […], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], and M. Cooper, […], →OCLC