[with obj.](常作 be exterminated)destroy completely 根絕;滅絕;消滅 leftist ideals had not been totally exterminated. 左派的理想化設(shè)想還沒有完全根除。 ■kill (a pest) 滅(害蟲) they use poison to exterminate moles. 他們用毒藥消滅鼴鼠。
late Middle English (in the sense 'drive out, banish'): from Latin exterminat- 'driven out, banished', from the verb exterminare, from ex- 'out' + terminus 'boundary'. The sense 'destroy' (mid 16th cent.) comes from the Latin of the Vulgate