1. destroy completely: "after exterminating the entire population, the soldiers set fire to the buildings"
▪ kill (a pest):"they use poison to exterminate moles"
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘drive out’): from Latin exterminat- ‘driven out’, from the verb exterminare, from ex- ‘out’ + terminus ‘boundary’. The sense ‘destroy’ (mid 16th century) comes from the Latin of the Vulgate.