Wiktionary

remove

See also: remové

EnglishEdit

EtymologyEdit

From Middle English removen, from Anglo-Norman remover, removeir, from Old French remouvoir, from Latin removēre, from re- + movēre (“to move”). Displaced native Old English āfierran.

PronunciationEdit

  • IPA(key): /ɹɪˈmuːv/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Audio (AU)(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːv

VerbEdit

remove (third-person singular simple present removes, present participle removing, simple past and past participle removed)

  1. (transitive) To delete.
  2. (transitive) To move something or someone from one place to another, especially to take away.
    He removed the marbles from the bag.
    • 1560, Geneva Bible, The Geneva Bible#page/n182 Deuteronomy 19:14:
      Thou ſhalt not remoue thy neighbours marke, which thei of olde time haue ſet in thine inheritance, that thou ſhalt inherit the lãd, which the Lord thy God giueth the to poſſeſſe it.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 2, in The China Governess‎[1]:
      Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety.  She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.
    1. (obsolete, formal) To replace a dish within a course.
      • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
        But Richmond […] appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw […] that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either.
  3. (transitive) To murder.
  4. (cricket, transitive) To dismiss a batsman.
  5. (transitive) To discard, set aside, especially something abstract (a thought, feeling, etc.).
  6. (intransitive, now rare) To depart, leave.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “vj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book V:
      THenne the kynge dyd doo calle syre Gawayne / syre Borce / syr Lyonel and syre Bedewere / and commaunded them to goo strayte to syre Lucius / and saye ye to hym that hastely he remeue oute of my land / And yf he wil not / bydde hym make hym redy to bataylle and not distresse the poure peple
      (please add an English translation of this quote)
  7. (intransitive, archaic) To change one's residence or place of business; to move.
    • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene iii]:
      Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane.
    • 1719 April 25​, [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], 3rd edition, London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], published 1719, OCLC 838630407:
      Now my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place where I lived.
    • 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of, Nebraska 1987, p.20:
      Shortly after this, my father removed, and settled in the same county, about ten miles above Greenville.
    • 1886, Lim, Hiong Seng, Handbook of the Swatow Vernacular, Singapore: Koh Yew Hean Press:
      I am going to remove. / Where are you going to remove to? / I don't know yet. / When will you know?
    • 1925, W. K. & Co., “How to Avoid a Controversy Over Fixtures Between Landlord and Tenant”, in American Independent Baker: Official Organ of the Retail Bakers, volume 23, page 20:
      About a year ago we removed to the above address, which we leased on a five-year lease with privilege of cancellation in one year.
  8. To dismiss or discharge from office.
    The President removed many postmasters.

ConjugationEdit

Conjugation of remove
infinitive (to) remove
present tense past tense
1st-person singular remove removed
2nd-person singular
3rd-person singular removes
plural remove
subjunctive remove removed
imperative remove —
participles removing removed

SynonymsEdit

AntonymsEdit

Derived termsEdit

TranslationsEdit

to delete — see delete
to dismiss or discharge from office — see dismiss,‎ discharge

NounEdit

remove (plural removes)

  1. The act of removing something.
  2. (cooking, now chiefly historical) A dish served to replace an earlier one during a meal; a part of a new course.
    • 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford 2009, p. 16:
      A supper brings up the rear, not forgetting the introductory luncheon, almost equalling in removes the dinner.
  3. (Britain) (at some public schools) A division of the school, especially the form prior to last
  4. A step or gradation (as in the phrase "at one remove")
    • 1716 January 3 (Gregorian calendar)​, Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 1. Friday, December 23. 1715.”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, OCLC 1056445272:
      A freeholder is but one remove from a legislator.
    • 1970, Yuri Rytkheu, Сон в начале тумана [A Dream in Polar Fog]:
      Toko returned to the men, sitting at a remove.
    • 2007, James D. McCallister, King's Highway, page 162:
      In his unfortunate absence at this far remove of 2007, Zevon's musicianship and irascible wit are as missed as ever.
  5. Distance in time or space; interval.
  6. (figuratively, by extension) Emotional distance or indifference.
  7. (dated) The transfer of one's home or business to another place; a move.
  8. The act of resetting a horse's shoe.

ReferencesEdit

  • OED 2nd edition 1989
  • remove at OneLook Dictionary Search

LatinEdit

VerbEdit

removē

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of removeō

PortugueseEdit

PronunciationEdit

VerbEdit

remove

  1. inflection of remover:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative
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