wipe out

Verb

wipe out (third-person singular simple present wipes out, present participle wiping out, simple past and past participle wiped out)

1. (transitive) To destroy (especially, a large number or complete set of people or things); to obliterate.
   • a tornado that nearly wiped out an entire town
   • Yasser Arafat (Katz): You do not go far enough General Amin. We must rip their entrails out and drag them from here to Damascus until they include us in the peace process.
     Muammar Gaddafi (LuJane): No! Nonsense! This solution is not bold enough for Libya. I say wipe out Washington and New York.1988 December 2, Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Pat Proft, directed by David Zucker, The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, David Katz and Robert LuJane (actors)
2. (transitive) To physically erase (writing, computer data, etc.).
   • nearly a year's worth of database records wiped out by disk failure coupled with lack of backups
3. (transitive) To do away with; to cause to disappear.
   • trying to wipe out hunger and alleviate despair
   • The leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who had dominated headlines in recent weeks with rousing open-air rallies against capitalism, took about 11% and failed in his ultimate aim of beating Le Pen and wiping out the extreme right.2012 April 23, Angelique Chrisafis, “François Hollande on top but far right scores record result in French election”, in the Guardian
4. (informal, transitive) To exhaust (someone); to tire (them) out.
   • An hour of snow shoveling kind of wiped me out more than I expected.
   • I tried to force myself to sound happy even though I was exhausted. Four solid days of finals and studying for them had wiped me out.2014, Sandra Gutierrez, The Way Life Used To Be, page 135
5. (informal, transitive) To bankrupt (a person or company); to empty (a bank account); to erase (a bank balance).
   • They tried hard to hang on, but the Great Depression wiped them out.
   • Unexpected big-ticket expenses wiped out his bank balance.
6. (intransitive) To crash; to fall over or fall off (especially in board sports such as surfing, skateboarding, etc.).
   • shot into the half-pipe but then wiped out
   • A massive wave caused him to wipe out.
7. (transitive) To knock (a surfer) off their board.
   • A massive wave wiped him out.
   • I'd like to show you what a wipeout looks like from the board. I'm pretty good at getting wiped out, so I'll be the stooge.1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer