RUBBED OUT Synonyms: 211 Similar and Opposite Words

rubbed out

verb

past tense of rub out

as in destroyed

to bring to a complete end the physical soundness, existence, or usefulness of aerial bombs rubbed out the oil refinery

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in assassinated

to put to death deliberately an elaborate setup to rub out rival mobsters

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in eradicated

to destroy all traces of a promise to rub out the city's drug trade

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

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.

Recent Examples of rubbed out This treacherous gang has phenomenally rubbed out many signatures of independence in a very short time. — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 14 June 2026 But an Irish knock-on rubbed out a try for Jack Conan, and the second chance was turned over by Mann. — ABC News, 6 Mar. 2026 No Mob boss, cheerfully decreeing that an inconvenient witness be rubbed out, could be more resolute. — Anthony Lane, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for rubbed out

Verb

In Bulgaria, authorities found and destroyed a Russian Gerbera-2 drone, which was not carrying explosives, in the waters of the country’s northern Black Sea coast, the Defense Ministry said Friday.

— Derek Gatopoulos, Los Angeles Times, 6 Nov. 2026
He was born in 1941 in the village of al-Birwa, which was destroyed by Israeli forces in 1948.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2026

Definition of destroyed

Verb

Kerr is a longtime Democrat whose father Malcolm was assassinated by religious extremists in 1984 while the elder Kerr served as the president of the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.

— Liam Russell, Sacbee.com, 13 Nov. 2026
Currently, a majority of the country’s capital is controlled by gangs after the president was assassinated in 2021.

— Nicole Acevedo, NBC news, 10 Nov. 2026

Definition of assassinated

Verb

His presence in government should be eradicated like a malignant tumor.

— Emily Feng, NPR, 6 Nov. 2026
The islands lost 9% to 20% of the total Key Deer population, but the New World screwworm was declared eradicated there on March 23, 2017, less than a year after it was discovered.

— Eric Michel, The Conversation, 6 Nov. 2026

Definition of eradicated

Verb

The tumult of these raids, which played out daily on TV and social media, ruined lives and hurt local economies.

— Clarence Page, Chicago Tribune, 9 Nov. 2026
Morgenthau left Coburg hoping to become a writer or poet but was forced to pivot to law after hyperinflation ruined his family’s finances.

— David Sacks, Foreign Affairs, 6 Nov. 2026

Definition of ruined

Verb

Detectives from the start suspected Panetti had been murdered.

— Rocco Parascandola, New York Daily News, 2 Nov. 2026
It was consecrated by James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, young Black and Jewish men murdered together in 1964 for their work to register Black voters.

— Seth Limmer, Chicago Tribune, 1 Nov. 2026

Definition of murdered

Verb

Burns joined the twenty-seventh annual New Yorker Festival to discuss his work with Michael Luo, an executive editor at the magazine, and the importance of chronicling history at a time when more and more is being written over and erased.

— The New Yorker, New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2026
Playing its first game since firing coach Mike Norvell after six-plus seasons, Florida State erased a 17-7 second-quarter deficit by putting up two TDs in the final six minutes of the half.

— ABC News, ABC News, 7 Nov. 2026

Definition of erased

Verb

The apartment building where the children were killed was later demolished and the land was turned into a park and a community garden.

— CBS News, CBS News, 13 Nov. 2026
In March, the DOB issued a stop work order after inspectors found the developers had demolished the existing building on the site without providing adequate shielding to neighboring properties, including 1321 Flatbush Avenue.

— James Cirrone, FOXNews.com, 12 Nov. 2026

Definition of demolished

Verb

No one has been executed in the state since 2006 and California has the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.

— Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 6 Nov. 2026
In July, Florida executed two prisoners on the same day, the first double execution by a single state in nearly a decade.

— Landon Mion, FOXNews.com, 6 Nov. 2026