delete

To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.

Noun

  1. A deletion.
    • Cascading updates and cascading deletes are useful features of the SQL Server database engine. - 2003, Jeffrey P. McManus, Jackie Goldstein, Kevin T. Price, Database Access with Visual Basic .NET, page 30:
  2. A remainder of a music or video release.
    • One CRIA official pegs the total record sales of deletes and imports as high as 30 percent for 1976 - 1977 October 29, Billboard, volume 89, number 43, page 57:
    • The industry also continues to discuss how the new GATT will serve to prevent a flood of deletes into the market - 1984 December 1, Billboard, volume 96, number 48, page 68:
    • Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Assn. (CRIA), says the flood of deletes could be more harmful than the last wave […] - 1985 February 9, Billboard, volume 97, number 6, page 38:
  3. Alternative letter-case form of Delete.
  4. The delete character (U+007F or %7F).

Origin

From Latin dēlētus, past participle of dēlēre (“destroy, blot out, efface”), from dēlēvī, originally perf. tense of dēlinere (“to daub, erase by smudging”), from dē- (“from, away”) + linere (“to smear, wipe”). Original sense first appears c. 1495. In common use for ordering the absence of features of products (such as automobiles) in the 1960s. The computing sense, including the noun form, first appears c. 1977 in Software: Practice & Experience. Not related to deleterious. Doublet of delible and deleble.

Forms

deletes

Derived

dirty delete

Verb

  1. To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.
    • Early on in the model year [1968] Pontiac experienced some production problems [in producing polyurethane bumpers] regarding fit, matching paint color, and bonding the material to the base metal. As a result, 2,108 1968...

    Synonyms: erase clear strike terminate remove

    Antonyms: insert maintain restore stet

  2. To defeat or dominate.
    • Also I got deleted by a rogue and druid who were both invisible and just popped up and cleaned me. - 2020 November 20, “Enhance Arena positioning”, in Blizzard Forums (US):
  3. To kill or murder.
    • "Go find this guy, Alex," Conch had said. "And delete him." - 2008, Ted Bell, Assassin:
    • "[…]The less we discover about him, the more we are convinced he needs to be deleted..." […] "Yes. In other words I kill a terrorist, right?" - 2013, Tim Corkery, Funny to Horror: Short Stories:
    • I'm a forty-something psychopath who thinks he has the right to delete anyone he sees fit. - 2015, Shane Kuhn, The Intern's Handbook, page 220:

Forms

deletes deleting deleted

Synonyms

erase clear strike terminate remove redact rub out strike out obliterate cancel cross out score scrub scrap scratch expunge eliminate blue-pencil exclude squelch

Antonyms

insert maintain

Related

delible diminish

Derived

autodelete deletability deletable deletant deletee deleter deletia deletion deletive dirty delete expletive deleted nondeleting redelete self-delete soft-delete speedy delete undelete