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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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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

Some 600 drones were detected headed toward the Russian capital, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said, with a third destroyed over the Moscow region itself.

— ABC News, ABC News, 16 Aug. 2026
An airstrike destroyed a house in Ansar town, killing seven people and wounding three others on Saturday morning, NNA said.

— Tim Lister, CNN Money, 15 Aug. 2026

Definition of destroyed

Verb

Someone had apparently vandalized Altman's Wikipedia page, claiming he was assassinated in Seattle.

— Emily Forlini, Fortune, 13 Aug. 2026
But when The Satanic Verses was published in 1988, the novel was declared by some as blasphemous, and then-Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini issued a fatwa for Rushdie to be assassinated, leading the author to go into hiding until 1998.

— Charlotte Phillipp, PEOPLE, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of assassinated

Verb

Smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980 and no longer naturally circulates, was once one of the world's deadliest diseases.

— Andrea Margolis, FOXNews.com, 13 Aug. 2026
The Asian giant hornet—aka murder hornet—was eradicated from Washington state and hasn’t become established here.

— Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 13 Aug. 2026

Definition of eradicated

Verb

Brentford will be hoping promising midfielder Antoni Milambo can contribute after his debut season was ruined by an ACL injury in October.

— Chris Weatherspoon, New York Times, 14 Aug. 2026
Tuesday’s second callback inspection, third inspection overall, got ruined by two dead roaches under a dry storage shelf and four live roaches in dry storage.

— David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 14 Aug. 2026

Definition of ruined

Verb

Itzkowitz is the eldest son of Albert Itzkowitz, who was brutally murdered in broad daylight at Kissena Park in Queens on the afternoon of May 18.

— Simcha Itzkowitz, New York Daily News, 12 Aug. 2026
Security footage showed the van leaving the Home Depot parking lot shortly before Fandrich was murdered.

— Lauren Clark, CBS News, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of murdered

Verb

Their efforts have successfully erased half the population from public life and made Afghanistan one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a woman.

— Kara Fox, CNN Money, 15 Aug. 2026
But what frightened me most was not death alone, but the idea of dying before my writings reached the world—that my story would disappear with me, and that my feelings, my memories, my identity, and my human experience would be erased.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 14 Aug. 2026

Definition of erased

Verb

In Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, a Russian glide bomb demolished six floors of a 10-story apartment block, killing one person and wounding 16 others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

— ABC News, ABC News, 14 Aug. 2026
The facade will join a growing list of other historic sites that have been steadily demolished around Charlotte over the decades.

— Desiree Mathurin, Charlotte Observer, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of demolished

Verb

The 68-year-old was executed by lethal injection July 28 for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee while on duty as a cop for the Mascotte Police Department.

— Natasha Holt, FOXNews.com, 15 Aug. 2026
Two Elmwood jail inmates were convicted at trial of murdering another inmate in a vicious gang beating that was executed over the course of 11 agonizing minutes, and went undetected even as it was recorded on surveillance cameras.

— Robert Salonga, Mercury News, 15 Aug. 2026