wiping 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
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
4. (informal, transitive) To exhaust (someone); to tire (them) out.
   • An hour of snow shoveling kind of wiped me out more than I expected.
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.
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

See all 7 meanings of wipe out