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

Relevance

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

Synonyms & Similar Words

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

The Pakistani Information Ministry rejected a claim by Afghanistan's Defense Ministry that Afghanistan had destroyed a Pakistani post near the southern Afghan border town of Spin Boldak, opposite the Pakistani city of Chaman.

— MUNIR AHMED, Arkansas Online, 26 Sep. 2026
Saudi Arabia said earlier this month that its air defenses destroyed a Houthi drone headed for the holy city of Mecca, a claim the group denied.

— Azhar Sukri, CNBC, 26 Sep. 2026

Definition of destroyed

Verb

President Joe Biden extended it after Haitiian President, Jovenel Moïse was assassinated on July 7, 2021.

— Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 23 Sep. 2026
In the late 1990s, there were calls for the citizenship of Yigal Amir, who assassinated former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, to be removed.

— Melanie Goodfellow, Deadline, 17 Sep. 2026

Definition of assassinated

Verb

The team has eradicated every invasive casuarina pine, the Australian import whose needles poison the native plants beneath it, along with invasive sea grapes that chew up the dunes.

— Sydney Lake, Fortune, 10 Sep. 2026
Screwworm had been considered eradicated from the US, Mexico and most of Central America decades ago.

— Jen Christensen, CNN Money, 7 Sep. 2026

Definition of eradicated

Verb

Before the attack, millions of books a year were printed in this space, where there’s now nothing but piles of swollen book stock, ruined after firefighters put out the blaze.

— ABC News, ABC News, 21 Sep. 2026
In a defense memo, Pattis characterizes Diamantis as a broken and financially ruined former politician and lawyer who at 70 might not survive a long prison sentence.

— Edmund H. Mahony, Hartford Courant, 14 Sep. 2026

Definition of ruined

Verb

Sneed recovered what would have been a game-clinching fumble, but replay review erased the call.

— Kansas City Star, Kansas City Star, 25 Sep. 2026
The pullback has erased all of the stock's strong summer performance, a stretch that included encouraging third-quarter results.

— Alexa LoMonaco, CNBC, 24 Sep. 2026

Definition of erased

Verb

The block that houses Monarch Donuts will soon be demolished as construction starts on a new retail and residential development called the Arcadia Town Center.

— Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 21 Sep. 2026
Part of the former Bob Jones Shoes building in the Crossroads could be demolished.

— Chris Higgins, Kansas City Star, 20 Sep. 2026

Definition of demolished

Verb

For example, SpaceX has made three successful catches of Super Heavy back at SpaceX’s Starbase, Texas, launch facility, and has executed a handful of Raptor 3 single-engine relights on Ship while in space.

— Josh Dinner, Space.com, 26 Sep. 2026
Cleaning up three years of contracts matters less than ensuring next month’s contracts land in the right place, signed, on the day they are executed.

— Jeremy Bradley-Silverio Donato, Forbes.com, 25 Sep. 2026