| 释义 |
▪ I. obliterate, ppl. a.|əˈblɪtərət|
[ad. L. oblit(t)erāt-us, pa. pple. of oblit(t)erāre: see next.]
1. Blotted out; effaced; cancelled; obliterated. Now only poet.
a. Construed as pa. pple.
1598in Row Hist. Kirk (1842) 190 It is concluded that all those greevances be obliterat and buried. 1613Jackson Creed ii. xvii. §1 The Prints of Moses footsteps, almost obliterate and ouergrown by the sloth and negligence of former times. 1647H. More Song of Soul ii. ii. iii. xi, A name..through time almost obliterate. 1834Ld. Houghton Mem. Many Scenes, Mod. Greece (1844) 67 History records a time (Though in the splendour of the after-light Nearly obliterate).
b. Construed as adj.
a1631Donne in Select. (1840) 16 Impouerished and forgotten, and obliterate families. 1647Ward Simp. Cobler 34 It may maintain..a legible possession against an obliterate Claime. 1737Bracken Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 106 Parts of their Bodies become obliterate and defaced. 1860Heavysege Ct. Filippo 35 Dwindled doubtful to obliterate shade.
2. Ent. (See quot.)
1826Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. 292 Obliterate, when the borders of spots fade into the general ground-colour; and when elevations and depressions, &c. are so little raised or sunk from the general surface, as to be almost erased.
▪ II. obliterate, v.|əˈblɪtəreɪt|
[f. L. oblit(t)erāt-, ppl. stem of oblit(t)erāre to strike or blot out, erase, blot out of remembrance (rare in lit. sense), f. ob- (ob- 1 b) + lit(t)era anything written, a letter. Cf. F. oblitérer (15–16th c.).]
1. trans. To blot out (anything written, figured, or imprinted) so as to leave no distinct traces; to erase, delete, efface.
1611Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vi. xxvi. §6. 120 The Senate..decreed that his name should bee obliterated out of all monuments in Rome. 1701Grew Cosm. Sacra ii. iii. 43 When we forget Things..the Impressions are obliterated. 1843Lytton Last Bar. i. iv, The colours were half obliterated by time and damp. 1863Burton Bk. Hunter 44 As he did not obliterate the original matter, the printer was rather puzzled.
b. To cause to disappear, to efface (anything visible or perceived by the senses).
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 120 The fragrancy of every green herb yeeldeth such a savour as doth not a little obliterate and oversway the savour of the beast. 1833–6J. Eagles Sketcher (1856) 355 The snow, obliterating the very ground on which you stood sketching. 1848W. H. Bartlett Egypt to Pal. v. (1879) 99 Everything upon the lower levels of the Nile must gradually or rapidly be obliterated by its inundations. 1878Huxley Physiogr. 195 New cones being thrown up at one time and old ones being obliterated at another.
2. To efface, wipe out (a mental impression, memory, or feeling); to do away the remembrance or sense of; to do away with, destroy (qualities, characteristics, etc.).
1600W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 224 To obliterate, eradicate, and vtterly extinguish the name of Bishops. 1605Bacon Adv. Learn. i. vi. §14 He designed to obliterate and extinguish the memory of heathen antiquity and authors. 1734tr. Rollin's Anc. Hist. (1827) VI. xv. xiv. 229 It entirely obliterates the glory of all his other actions. 1881Westcott & Hort Grk. N.T. Introd. §8 The professional training of scribes can rarely obliterate individual differences.
3. Phys. and Path. To efface, close up, or otherwise destroy for its special purpose (esp. a duct or passage, the cavity of which disappears by contraction and adhesion of the walls). Also intr. for refl.
1813J. Thomson Lect. Inflam. 417 Consequently a less extent of surface in the new parts is wanted to obliterate, or fill up this cavity, than what formerly filled it. 1828D. le Marchant Rep. Claims Barony of Gardner 164 The neck of the womb gradually obliterates. 1835–6Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 641/2 The umbilical vessels [are] obliterated at the navel after..pulmonic respiration is established. 1841–71T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. (ed. 4) 528 Ultimately the communication between the parent [ascidian] and the young individual becomes obliterated.
Hence oˈbliterated ppl. a.; oˈbliterating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1611Cotgr., Obliteré, obliterated. 1677Gilpin Demonol. (1867) 144 His power seems to extend to the obliterating of principles. 1694Salmon Bate's Dispens. (1713) 453/2 Stirring up the latent or almost obliterated ferment of Life. 1863Burton Bk. Hunter 3 An obliterated manuscript written over again is called a palimpsest. 1882Stevenson New Arab. Nts. (1884) 123 [They] showed their common⁓place and obliterated countenances. 1892Ld. Lytton King Poppy iv. 254 Down fell an obliterating blot. Mod. An obliterating stamp for cancelling postage stamps. |