delete

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   remove or make invisible

   Please delete my name from your list

2. 2
   verb

   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 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. As soon as Pontiac worked out the production problems the chrome bumpers disappeared for good and "Endura bumper delete" disappeared from the option list.

3. 3
   verb

   To defeat or dominate.

   Also I got deleted by a rogue and druid who were both invisible and just popped up and cleaned me.

4. 4
   verb

   To kill or murder.

   "Go find this guy, Alex," Conch had said. "And delete him."

5. 5
   noun

   A deletion.

   Cascading updates and cascading deletes are useful features of the SQL Server database engine.

6. 6
   noun

   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 1976

7. 7
   verb

   cut or eliminate

8. 8
   verb

   wipe out digitally or magnetically recorded information

Etymology

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.