wipe out

present singular third person wipes out · participle present wiping out · participle past wiped out · past wiped out

1. transitiveTo destroy (especially, a large number or complete set of people or things); to obliterate.

   a tornado that nearly wiped out an entire town

   3 more examples

   Yasser Arafat (Katz): You do not go far enough General Amin. We must rip their entrails out and drag them from here to Damascus until they include us in the peace process. Muammar Gaddafi (LuJane): No! Nonsense! This solution is not bold enough for Libya. I say wipe out Washington and New York.

   1988 December 2, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Pat Proft, directed by David Zucker, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, David Katz and Robert LuJane (actors)

   Darth Sidious: Wipe them out. All of them.

   1999, “Episode I: The Phantom Menace”, in Star Wars

   Now, that, admittedly, did do an awful lot more damage (the 5th and 6th were almost completely wiped out), but the High Seas Fleet was, in turn, almost completely wiped out (in fact, basically was wiped out, to a man) by the oncoming rest of the British Grand Fleet, and it was decided by everybody that this kind of, like, suicidal, completely suicidal, charge was probably a bit out of character for Hipper, and so we didn't take that particular one into account.

   2018 October 17, Drachinifel, 33:41 from the start, in Last Ride of the High Seas Fleet - Battle of Texel 1918, archived from the original on 04 Aug 2022

2. transitiveTo physically erase (writing, computer data, etc.).

   nearly a year's worth of database records wiped out by disk failure coupled with lack of backups

3. transitiveTo do away with; to cause to disappear.

   trying to wipe out hunger and alleviate despair

   1 more example

   The leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who had dominated headlines in recent weeks with rousing open-air rallies against capitalism, took about 11% and failed in his ultimate aim of beating Le Pen and wiping out the extreme right.

   2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the Guardian

4. informaltransitiveTo exhaust (someone); to tire (them) out.

   An hour of snow shoveling kind of wiped me out more than I expected.

   1 more example

   I tried to force myself to sound happy even though I was exhausted. Four solid days of finals and studying for them had wiped me out.

   2014, Sandra Gutierrez, The Way Life Used To Be, page 135

5. informaltransitiveTo bankrupt (a person or company); to empty (a bank account); to erase (a bank balance).

   Unexpected big-ticket expenses wiped out his bank balance.

   1 more example

   They tried hard to hang on, but the Great Depression wiped them out.

6. intransitiveTo crash; to fall over or fall off (especially in board sports such as surfing, skateboarding, etc.).

   A massive wave caused him to wipe out.

   1 more example

   shot into the half-pipe but then wiped out

7. transitivehobbiesTo knock (a surfer) off their board.

   A massive wave wiped him out.

   1 more example

   I'd like to show you what a wipeout looks like from the board. I'm pretty good at getting wiped out, so I'll be the stooge.

   1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer

plural wipe outs

1. nonstandardNonstandard form of wipeout; nonstandard but widespread.