obliterated

English

Etymology

From obliterate +‎ -ed (suffix forming adjectives; and past tenses and past participles of regular verbs).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əˈblɪtəɹeɪtɪd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əˈblɪtəˌɹeɪtɪd/, /oʊ-/, [-ɾə-], [-ɾɪd]

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ob‧lit‧er‧at‧ed

Adjective

obliterated (comparative more obliterated, superlative most obliterated)

1. Destroyed; (loosely) broken beyond repair.
   • 1876, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XXIV, in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Conn.: The American Publishing Company, →OCLC:

     […] Huck’s confidence in the human race was wellnigh obliterated.

   • 1882, David Sharp, On Aquatic Carnivorous Coleoptera or Dytiscidae, page 940:

     [A]s however the sutures between this epimeron and the adjoining pieces are very obliterated, it easily escapes observation even when really exposed.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Silverside”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 316:

     Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

   • 1912, Interstate Medical Journal, page 249:

     Bearing in mind that the veins have more compressible walls than the arteries, it is intelligible how they are more obliterated than the former when an organ becomes dislocated.

   • 1992, Michael Parrington, The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, →ISBN, page 86:

     Had he succeeded in awakening in 1966, he would no doubt have been fascinated to find the site of his obliterated house the subject of lively interest and debate as archaeologists and architects attempted a hypothetical reconstruction.

   • 2009, Francine Mathews, The Cutout, Random House, →ISBN, page 118:

     On the ground in Berlin, they would search for the axle of an obliterated car and hope that it bore a serial number; they would probe the crater at the Brandenburg's foot, shifting stones made ancient by blood and grief.

   • 2012, Molly Harper, Driving Mr. Dead, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 139:

     A vindictive little kitten who is still angry about an obliterated car, more like.

2. (figurative) Forgotten.
   • 1798, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, “[Maria: or, The] Wrongs of Woman”, in W[illiam] Godwin, editor, Posthumous Works of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […]; and G[eorge,] G[eorge] and J[ohn] Robinson, […], →OCLC:

     This thought gave life to her diction, her soul flowed into it, and she soon found the task of recollecting almost obliterated impressions very interesting.

   • 1915, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter VI, in The Rainbow‎^[1], Methuen & Co.:

     Her husband was obliterated, she was with her father again, who was so fresh and free and all daylight. Her husband, with his intensity and his darkness, was obliterated. She left him, she forgot him, she accepted her father.

3. (slang) Very drunk or intoxicated; wasted.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:drunk

   • 2017, Jill Filipovic, The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness‎^[2], Hachette, →ISBN:

     The right of men to get obliterated and do stupid stuff—the fun men have getting obliterated and doing stupid stuff—is so culturally accepted that it's a cornerstone of best man speeches and bro comedies.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:obliterated.

Verb

obliterated

1. simple past and past participle of obliterate

Further reading

• Jonathon Green (2024) “obliterated adj.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang