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Phrase(s): wipe something out
Sl. to use up all of something. • I wiped the cookies out—not all at once, of course. • Who wiped out the strawberry preserves?, Phrase(s): wipe someone out
1. Sl. to kill someone. • Max intended to wipe Lefty’s gang out. • Lefty wiped out Max’s gang. 2. Sl. to exhaust or debilitate someone. • The long walk wiped me out. • The trip wiped out the hikers. 3. Inf. to ruin someone financially. • The loss of my job wiped us out. • The storm ruined the corn crop and wiped out everyone in the county., Phrase(s): wipe out
1. Inf. to crash. • I wiped out on the curve. • The car wiped out on the curve. 2. Inf. to fall off or away from something, such as a bicycle, skates, a surfboard, a skateboard, etc. • I wiped out and skinned my knee. • If I wipe out again, my mother says I’m through. 3. Inf. to fail badly. • The test was terrible! I’m sure I wiped out. • It was a bad test. I wiped out for sure.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
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1. Destroy, as in The large chains are wiping out the independent bookstores. Originally put simply as wipe, the idiom acquired out in the first half of the 1800s. 2. Kill; also, murder. For example, The entire crew was wiped out in the plane crash, or The gangsters threatened to wipe him and his family out. [Late 1800s]
American Heritage Idioms