Definition of "extirpate" [ex•tir•pate]

• To pull up by the roots. (verb-transitive)
• To destroy totally; exterminate. See Synonyms at abolish. (verb-transitive)
• To remove by surgery. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The English colonists were thus fulfilling their responsibility to protect as they proceeded to "extirpate" and "exterminate" the natives, in their words -- and for their own good, their honored successors explained."
• "He was pleased that God had promoted the true faith “so honorably” and that the French monarchy had been able to “extirpate the poisonous roots with such prudence.”"
• "And the single best example of that external control was the attempt to limit – and implicitly, extirpate – chattel slavery."