verb (used with object), e·rased, e·ras·ing.
- to rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, etc.; efface.
- to eliminate completely: She couldn’t erase the tragic scene from her memory.
- to obliterate (material recorded on magnetic tape or a magnetic disk): She erased the message.
- to obliterate recorded material from (a magnetic tape or disk): He accidentally erased the tape.
- Computers. to remove (data) from computer storage.
- Slang. to murder: The gang had to erase him before he informed on them.
verb (used without object), e·rased, e·ras·ing.
- to give way to effacement readily or easily.
- to obliterate characters, letters, markings, etc., from something.
verb
- to obliterate or rub out (something written, typed, etc)
- (tr) to destroy all traces of; remove completelytime erases grief
- to remove (a recording) from (magnetic tape)
- (tr) computing to replace (data) on a storage device with characters representing an absence of data
c.1600, from Latin erasus, past participle of eradere “scrape out, scrape off, shave,” from ex- “out” (see ex-) + radere “to scrape” (see raze). Of magnetic tape, from 1945. Related: Erased; erasing.