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Mutilate vs Erase - What's the difference?

mutilate | erase |

As verbs the difference between mutilate and erase

is that mutilate is to physically harm as to impair use, notably by cutting off or otherwise disabling a vital part, such as a limb while erase is to remove markings or information.

As an adjective mutilate

is deprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated.

mutilate

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To physically harm as to impair use, notably by cutting off or otherwise disabling a vital part, such as a limb.
  • To destroy beyond recognition.
  • (figuratively) To render imperfect or defective.
  • Synonyms

    * maim * mangle

    Derived terms

    * mutilation * mutilative * mutilator

    See also

    * amputate, amputation * castrate, castration * circumcise, circumcision

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (obsolete) Deprived of, or having lost, an important part; mutilated.
  • (Sir Thomas Browne)
  • (zoology) Having fin-like appendages or flukes instead of legs, as a cetacean does.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Alternative forms

    * (abbreviation)

    Anagrams

    * ----

    erase

    English

    Verb

    (eras)
  • to remove markings or information
  • I erased that note because it was wrong.
  • To obliterate information from (a storage medium), such as to clear or (with magnetic storage) to demagnetize.
  • I'm going to erase this tape.
  • To obliterate (information) from a storage medium, such as to clear or to overwrite.
  • I'm going to erase those files.
  • (baseball) To remove a runner from the bases via a double play or pick off play
  • Jones was erased by a 6-4-3 double play.
  • To be erased .
  • The chalkboard erased easily.
    Her painful memories seemingly erased completely.
    The files will erase quickly.
  • To disregard (a group, an orientation, etc.); to prevent from having an active role in society.
  • * 1998 , Janice Lynn Ristock, ?Catherine Taylor, Inside the academy and out
  • I suggest, then, that counterdiscourses, when reductive, tend to emulate the screen discourse that erases gay sociality.
  • * 2004 , Daniel Lefkowitz, Words and Stones (page 209)
  • As a result, Palestinians are hyperpresent in Israeli media, while Mizrahim are erased from public discourse.
  • * 2011 , Qwo-Li Driskill, Queer Indigenous Studies (page 40)
  • Silence around Native sexuality benefits the colonizers and erases queer Native people from their communities.

    Derived terms

    * eraser * unerase * erasable * unerasable

    Antonyms

    * (remove markings or information) record

    Anagrams

    * English ergative verbs ----