delete

verb de·lete \ di-ˈlēt , dē- \

|Updated on: 6 Aug 2018

Examples: delete in a Sentence

Definition of delete

deleted; deleting

transitive verb

: to eliminate especially by blotting out, cutting out, or erasing

delete a passage in a manuscript

delete a computer file

The e-mail was accidentally deleted.

—

deletable

play \di-ˈlē-tə-bəl, dē-\ adjective

- an easily deletable photo

See delete defined for English-language learners

See delete defined for kids

Examples of delete in a Sentence

Delete this name from the list.
When the movie was shown on TV all the swearwords had been deleted.

Recent Examples of delete from the Web

In 2017, the company started deleting half-a-million bots a day; that number has since doubled.

— alex shephard, The New Republic, "Is Twitter Good Now?," 13 July 2018
Notepad will also add a feature letting people delete words that appear before the onscreen curser using ctrl+backspace, a popular Word shortcut.

— chris morris, Fortune, "Microsoft Is Finally Updating the Windows Notepad App," 12 July 2018
Now, she’s posted an update, apologizing after receiving backlash, and deleted some tweets related to the event.

— rosemary donahue, Allure, "The Problem With "Plane Bae" and Using Strangers for Entertainment," 11 July 2018
The ruling was reversed after the umpires met and said Benintendi was out of the baseline, deleting his hit.

— dave clark, Cincinnati.com, "Madeira's Andrew Benintendi falls short in All-Star Final Vote," 11 July 2018
It can still be read here — in 2018, there’s really no such thing as deleting something published in a high-profile place on the internet.

— jesse singal, Daily Intelligencer, "Business Insider Retracted a Bad Piece — and Set a Terrible Precedent," 11 July 2018
The report got a reaction from President Donald Trump, who tweeted that Twitter should delete the accounts of the Times and the Post, neither of which are suspicious or fake.

— emily stewart, Vox, "Twitter’s wiping tens of millions of accounts from its platform," 11 July 2018
One of the myriad delights of this memoir is its revealing vista onto the ethos of San Francisco in the ’70s and Los Angeles in the ’80s, deleted worlds in which outrageous characters stagger and strive.

— william giraldi, The Seattle Times, "Glen David Gold’s new memoir is ‘a soiree of heart-wreck wised up by humor’," 9 July 2018
Update: Not long after Hailey posted then deleted her bikini pic, Justin Bieber confirmed their engagement on Instagram.

— erica gonzales, Harper's BAZAAR, "Hailey Baldwin Posts Then Deletes Instagram Without Engagement Ring," 9 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'delete.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of delete

Latin deletus, past participle of delēre to wipe out, destroy

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: circa 1605

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

delete Synonyms

Synonyms

blue-pencil, cancel, cross (out), dele, edit (out), elide, kill, scratch (out), strike (out), stroke (out), x (out);

Near Antonyms

stet;

bleep, blip, clip, cut, excise, remove;

bowdlerize, censor, clean (up), expurgate, launder, redact, red-pencil;

abbreviate, crop, shorten;

black out, repress, silence, suppress;

DELETE Defined for English Language Learners

delete

verb

Definition of delete for English Language Learners

: to remove (something, such as words, pictures, or computer files) from a document, recording, computer, etc.

DELETE Defined for Kids

delete

verb de·lete \ di-ˈlēt \

Definition of delete for Students

deleted; deleting

: to take out especially by erasing, crossing out, or cutting

delete a sentence

delete a computer file

Learn More about delete

See words that rhyme with delete Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for delete Spanish Central: Translation of delete Nglish: Translation of delete for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of delete for Arabic speakers

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delete

Definition of delete

deletable

Examples of delete in a Sentence

Recent Examples of delete from the Web

Origin and Etymology of delete

delete Synonyms

Synonyms

Near Antonyms

Related Words

DELETE Defined for English Language Learners

delete

Definition of delete for English Language Learners

DELETE Defined for Kids

delete

Definition of delete for Students

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