exterminate
verbVerb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they exterminate | |
| he / she / it exterminates | |
| past simple exterminated | |
| past participle exterminated | |
| -ing form exterminating |
- exterminate somebody/something
to kill all the members of a group of people or animals 灭绝；根除；消灭；毁灭 Fur seals were nearly exterminated a few years ago. 几年前，海狗几乎灭绝了。
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 cent.) comes from the Latin of the Vulgate, the Latin version of the Bible prepared in the late 4th century.