Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for OB-LIT'ER-ATE
OB-LIT'ER-ATE, v.t. [L. oblitero; ob and litera, letter.]
- To efface; to erase or blot out any thing written; or to efface any thing engraved. A writing may be obliterated by erasure, by blotting, or by the slow operation of time or natural causes.
- To efface; to wear out; to destroy by time or other means; as, to obliterate ideas or impressions; to obliterate the monuments of antiquity; to obliterate reproach. Hale. Locke.
- To reduce to a very low or imperceptible state. The torpor of the vascular system and obliterated pulse. Med. Repos.
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