delete

Etymology

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. Computing sense, including the noun form, first appears c. 1977 in Software: Practice & Experience. Not related to deleterious.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈliːt/, /diˈliːt/, /dəˈliːt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: de‧lete
• Rhymes: -iːt

Verb

delete (third-person singular simple present deletes, present participle deleting, simple past and past participle deleted)

1. (transitive) To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device. [from 1600s]

   Synonyms: erase, clear, strike, terminate, remove; see also Thesaurus:delete

   Antonyms: insert, maintain, restore, stet

   • 2009, Darwin Holmstrom, “Chapter 4: a maturing car for a maturing audience”, in GTO: Pontiac's Great One‎, Crestline Books, →ISBN, page 166:

     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 GTOs left the factory with chrome bumpers borrowed from the LeMans. These cars had a special option on their order sheets called "Endura bumper delete." Everyone wanted the Endura bumpers and no one ordered that option of his or her own free will. As soon as Pontiac worked out the production problems the chrome bumpers disappeared for good and "Endura bumper delete" disappeared from the option list.

2. (online gaming, slang) To defeat or dominate.
   • 2020 November 20, “Enhance Arena positioning”, in Blizzard Forums (US)‎:

     Also I got deleted by a rogue and druid who were both invisible and just popped up and cleaned me.

3. (transitive, slang) To kill or murder.
   • 2008, Ted Bell, Assassin:

     "Go find this guy, Alex," Conch had said. "And delete him."

   • 2013, Tim Corkery, Funny to Horror: Short Stories:

     " […] 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?"

   • 2015, Shane Kuhn, The Intern's Handbook, page 220:

     I'm a forty-something psychopath who thinks he has the right to delete anyone he sees fit.

   • 2017, Bill Dixon, Dragonfire: A New World of Poems and Stories:

     She either felt pity for him and put him out of pain, a ridiculous, untrue solution for pity and sorrow are delusions, or she was part of his triangle had to delete him before he spoke again, he had to be silenced.

Noun

delete (plural deletes)

1. (computing) A deletion.
   • 2003, Jeffrey P. McManus, Jackie Goldstein, Kevin T. Price, Database Access with Visual Basic .NET, page 30:

     Cascading updates and cascading deletes are useful features of the SQL Server database engine.

2. (recorded entertainment industry) A remainder of a music or video release.
   • 1977 October 29, Billboard‎, volume 89, number 43, page 57:

     One CRIA official pegs the total record sales of deletes and imports as high as 30 percent for 1976

   • 1984 December 1, Billboard‎, volume 96, number 48, page 68:

     The industry also continues to discuss how the new GATT will serve to prevent a flood of deletes into the market

   • 1985 February 9, Billboard‎, volume 97, number 6, page 38:

     Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Assn. (CRIA), says the flood of deletes could be more harmful than the last wave […]

3. (uncountable) Alternative letter-case form of Delete
4. (computing) The delete character (U+007F or %7F).

Further reading

• deletion on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Adjective

delete f pl

1. feminine plural of deleto

Anagrams

• ledete

Verb

dēlēte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of dēleō

Participle

dēlēte

1. vocative masculine singular of dēlētus

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English delete.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.