delete
Syllables: de·lete/dɪˈliːt/
delete verb: to remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device. Also the alternative letter-case form of Delete.
Verb
delete (third-person singular simple present deletes, present participle deleting, simple past and past participle deleted)
- To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.
- Early on in the model year [1968] Pontiac experienced some production problems [in producing polyurethane bumpers] regarding fit, matching paint color, and bonding the material to the base metal. As a result, 2,108 1968 GTOs left the factory with chrome bumpers borrowed from the LeMans. These cars...2009, Darwin Holmstrom, “Chapter 4: a maturing car for a maturing audience”, in GTO: Pontiac's Great One, Crestline Books, →ISBN, page 166
- To defeat or dominate.
- Also I got deleted by a rogue and druid who were both invisible and just popped up and cleaned me.2020 November 20, “Enhance Arena positioning”, in Blizzard Forums (US)
- To kill or murder.
- "Go find this guy, Alex," Conch had said. "And delete him."2008, Ted Bell, Assassin
- "[…]The less we discover about him, the more we are convinced he needs to be deleted..."
[…]
"Yes. In other words I kill a terrorist, right?"2013, Tim Corkery, Funny to Horror: Short Stories
Noun (1)
delete (plural deletes)
- A deletion.
- Cascading updates and cascading deletes are useful features of the SQL Server database engine.2003, Jeffrey P. McManus, Jackie Goldstein, Kevin T. Price, Database Access with Visual Basic .NET, page 30
- A remainder of a music or video release.
- One CRIA official pegs the total record sales of deletes and imports as high as 30 percent for 19761977 October 29, Billboard, volume 89, number 43, page 57
- The industry also continues to discuss how the new GATT will serve to prevent a flood of deletes into the market1984 December 1, Billboard, volume 96, number 48, page 68
- The delete character (U+007F or %7F).
Noun (2) capitalized: Delete
Delete (plural Deletes)
Also used as
delete is also the alternative letter-case form of Delete.
delete meaning in Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada
delete in Bengali
- to remove
- হজফ করা hôzôf kôra
delete in Telugu
- తొలగించుటకు, తొలగించుట
delete in Malayalam
- to remove
- കളയുക kaḷayuka, നീക്കംചെയ്യുക nīkkañceyyuka, ഇല്ലാതാക്കുക illātākkuka, മായ്ക്കുക māykkuka
delete in Kannada
- ಅಳಿಸಲು, ಅಳಿಸಿಹಾಕಲು
More languagesFewer languages
- delete in Gujarati
- કાઢી નાખવા માટે, કાઢી નાંખવા માટે, કાઢી નાખવા
- delete in Odia
- ଅପସାରଣ କରିବା
- delete in Sanskrit
- नाशयति nāśayati
- delete in Nepali
- मेटाउने, मेटाउन, मेटाउनका निम्ति
- delete in Tagalog
- burahin
- delete in Arabic
- حَذَفَ ḥaḏafa
- delete in Indonesian
- menghapus
- delete in Persian
- حذفیدن
- delete in Thai
- ลบ lóp
- delete in Vietnamese
- xóa, gạch, gạt bỏ
Examples of delete in a sentence
- These cars had a special option on their order sheets called "Endura bumper delete." Everyone wanted the Endura bumpers and no one ordered that option of his or her own free will.2009, Darwin Holmstrom, “Chapter 4: a maturing car for a maturing audience”, in GTO: Pontiac's Great One, Crestline Books, →ISBN, page 166:
- I'm a forty-something psychopath who thinks he has the right to delete anyone he sees fit.2015, Shane Kuhn, The Intern's Handbook, page 220:
- Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Assn. (CRIA), says the flood of deletes could be more harmful than the last wave […]1985 February 9, Billboard, volume 97, number 6, page 38:
Synonyms of delete
10 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of delete
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | deletes |
| present participle | deleting |
| past participle | deleted |
| past | deleted |
| Noun | |
| plural | deletes |
| plural | Deletes |
| alternative form | Del |
| alternative form | delete |
Origin of delete
From Latin dēlētus, past participle of dēlēre (“destroy, blot out, efface”), from dēlēvī, originally perf. tense of dēlinere (“to daub, erase by smudging”), from dē- (“from, away”) + linere (“to smear, wipe”). Original sense first appears c. 1495. In common use for ordering the absence of features of products (such as automobiles) in the 1960s. The computing sense, including the noun form, first appears c. 1977 in Software: Practice & Experience. Not related to deleterious. Doublet of delible and deleble.
From the verb delete.
Words formed from delete
Phrases with delete
Words that rhyme with delete
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- entreat
- fleet
- retreat
- treat
- complete
- conceit
- repeat
- concrete
- discrete
- bittersweet
- suite
- cheat
- cleat
- deceit
- greet
- unseat
- compete
- defeat
- effete
- elite
- escheat
- indiscrete
- leet
- pleat
- skeet
- sleet
- accrete
- beet
- bleat
- gleet
- ifrit
- incomplete
- overeat
- overheat
- petite
- replete
- superheat
- teat
- tweet
- wheat
- yeet
- Bereshit
- Bow Street
- Crete
- discreet
- downbeat
- jeet
- keet
Questions about delete
- What does delete mean?
- Delete means to remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device.
- What is delete in Bengali?
- Delete in Bengali is হজফ করা (hôzôf kôra). See Delete meaning in Bengali.
- How do you use delete in a sentence?
- These cars had a special option on their order sheets called "Endura bumper delete." Everyone wanted the Endura bumpers and no one ordered that option of his or her own free will.
- What part of speech is delete?
- Delete can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce delete?
- Delete is pronounced /dɪˈliːt/.
- What is the past tense of delete?
- The past tense of delete is deleted.
Words near delete in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: delete (page history and authors); Delete (page history and authors); delete (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); delete (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); delete (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); delete (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); delete (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-delete.ogg.
Cite this entry: “delete.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/delete. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.