▪ remove all traces of; destroy or obliterate: "over twenty years the last vestiges of a rural economy were erased"Similardestroywipe outobliterateeradicateabolishstamp outquashdo away withget rid ofremovedissolve
▪ remove recorded material from (a magnetic tape or medium); delete (data) from a computer's memory:"the tape could be magnetically erased and reused"
Word Originlate 16th century (originally as a heraldic term meaning ‘represent the head or limb of an animal with a jagged edge’): from Latin eras- ‘scraped away’, from the verb eradere, from e- (variant of ex-) ‘out’ + radere ‘scrape’.
