eighty-sixing

verb

variants or 86ing
present participle of eighty-six
as in dumping
to get rid of as useless or unwanted decided to eighty-six his birth name the minute he arrived in Hollywood

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for eighty-sixing
  1. dumping
  2. unloading
  3. discarding
  4. ditching
  5. losing
Verb
  • Analysts are perking up about CoreWeave, even though investors are dumping shares and interest rates are rising in the economy.
    — Tobias Burns, CNBC, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Standing water and dumping rodents put a country club restaurant in timeout after an inspection Friday.
    — David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of dumping
Verb
  • Getting thousands of sailors and tons of equipment off the ship is like unloading a small city.
    — Maxwell Adler, Vanity Fair, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Koons, one of the world’s most famous living artists, is said to be unloading the works in order to fund his own practice.
    — News Desk, Artforum, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of unloading
Verb
  • Still, discarding more than one fourth of a Tarantino script feels like a pretty bold move.
    — James Hibberd, HollywoodReporter, 20 Oct. 2026
  • The vehicle sheds these boosters during ascent before discarding its protective payload fairings.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 19 Oct. 2026
Definition of discarding
Verb
  • Jane Bargmann, global managing partner of private equity, industrial and life sciences at H&S noted a growing trend of leaders ditching their day jobs for a full-time board career.
    — Emma Burleigh, Fortune, 16 Oct. 2026
  • By ditching expensive cobalt and nickel for cheap, abundant iron, automakers lower costs while creating a battery that is safer and less prone to fire.
    — New Atlas, New Atlas, 13 Oct. 2026
Definition of ditching
Verb
  • Atlanta reached the Finals for the first time since 2013 and after losing in its previous three appearances in the championship round, will be trying for their first as well.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 17 Oct. 2026
  • Tim Boyd San Juan Capistrano I’m sure there are Dodgers fans unhappy about losing to the Brewers.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2026
Definition of losing
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

eighty-sixes
eighty-sixing
either
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Eighty-sixing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/eighty-sixing. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of puissant

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'Can' vs. 'May'

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

The Words of the Week - Oct. 23

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
different halloween monsters in silhouette
A Monstrous Vocab Quiz Words That Go Bump in the Night
See All