From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Exterminate \Ex*ter"mi*nate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p.
{Exterminated}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Exterminating}.] [L.
exterminatus, p. p. of exterminare to abolish, destroy, drive
out or away; ex out + terminus boundary, limit. See {Term}.]
1. To drive out or away; to expel.
[1913 Webster]
They deposed, exterminated, and deprived him of
communion. --Barrow.
[1913 Webster]
2. To destroy utterly; to cut off; to extirpate; to
annihilate; to root out; as, to exterminate a colony, a
tribe, or a nation; to exterminate error or vice.
[1913 Webster]
To explode and exterminate rank atheism. --Bentley.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Math.) To eliminate, as unknown quantities. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
exterminate
v 1: kill en masse; kill on a large scale; kill many; "Hitler
wanted to exterminate the Jews, Gypsies, Communists, and
homosexuals of Europe" [syn: {exterminate}, {kill off}]
2: destroy completely, as if down to the roots; "the vestiges of
political democracy were soon uprooted" "root out corruption"
[syn: {uproot}, {eradicate}, {extirpate}, {root out},
{exterminate}]
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