ôter

See also: oter, oster, and -oter

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from Old French oster, from Latin obstō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /o.te/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

ôter

1. to take away, remove
2. to take off, remove (clothes, etc.)
   • 1829, Victor Hugo, Le Dernier Jour d’un condamné:

     Le guichetier de garde vient d’entrer dans mon cachot, il a ôté sa casquette, m’a salué, s’est excusé de me déranger et m’a demandé, en adoucissant de son mieux sa rude voix, ce que je désirais à déjeuner.

     The duty hatchman just came into my cell, took off his cap, gave me a salute, said he was sorry for bothering me and asked me, whispering as best he could with his rough voice, what I wanted for lunch.

3. to remove, cut (text etc.); to take away (in arithmetic)
4. to take (something) away from someone; to deprive
   • 1640, Pierre Corneille, Horace, act I, scene 2:

     La guerre […] / Nous ôta tout

     The war […] / deprived us of everything

5. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to move oneself, get out of the way

Conjugation

Conjugation of ôter (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	ôter
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	ôtant /o.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		ôté /o.te/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	ôte /ot/	ôtes /ot/	ôte /ot/	ôtons /o.tɔ̃/	ôtez /o.te/	ôtent /ot/
	imperfect	ôtais /o.tɛ/	ôtais /o.tɛ/	ôtait /o.tɛ/	ôtions /o.tjɔ̃/	ôtiez /o.tje/	ôtaient /o.tɛ/
	past historic2	ôtai /o.te/	ôtas /o.ta/	ôta /o.ta/	ôtâmes /o.tam/	ôtâtes /o.tat/	ôtèrent /o.tɛʁ/
	future	ôterai /o.tʁe/	ôteras /o.tʁa/	ôtera /o.tʁa/	ôterons /o.tʁɔ̃/	ôterez /o.tʁe/	ôteront /o.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	ôterais /o.tʁɛ/	ôterais /o.tʁɛ/	ôterait /o.tʁɛ/	ôterions /o.tə.ʁjɔ̃/	ôteriez /o.tə.ʁje/	ôteraient /o.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	ôte /ot/	ôtes /ot/	ôte /ot/	ôtions /o.tjɔ̃/	ôtiez /o.tje/	ôtent /ot/
	imperfect2	ôtasse /o.tas/	ôtasses /o.tas/	ôtât /o.ta/	ôtassions /o.ta.sjɔ̃/	ôtassiez /o.ta.sje/	ôtassent /o.tas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	ôte /ot/	—	ôtons /o.tɔ̃/	ôtez /o.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• ôter une épine du pied

Further reading

• “ôter”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• rote, roté, tore

Norman

Etymology

From Old French oster, from Latin obstō, obstāre, from ob (“before, in front”) + stō, stāre (“stand”).

Verb

ôter

1. (Jersey) to remove

Antonyms

• mettre (“to put”)