[with obj.](常作 be exterminated)destroy completely 根绝;灭绝;消灭 leftist ideals had not been totally exterminated. 左派的理想化设想还没有完全根除。 ■kill (a pest) 灭(害虫) they use poison to exterminate moles. 他们用毒药消灭鼹鼠。
late Middle English (in the sense 'drive out, banish'): from Latin exterminat- 'driven out, banished', from the verb exterminare, from ex- 'out' + terminus 'boundary'. The sense 'destroy' (mid 16th cent.) comes from the Latin of the Vulgate