Also 6 exterpatione, extirpacion, -tion, exturpacion. [ad. L. ex(s)tirpātiōn-em, n. of action f. ex(s)tirpāre: see EXTIRPATE v. Cf. F. extirpation.] The action of extirpating.
† 1. The clearing (ground) of trees, etc. Cf. EXTIRPATE v. 1. Obs.
1607. Norden, Surv. Dial., 217. The generall extirpation … of coppise grounds in Middlesex.
2. The action of rooting up trees or weeds; total destruction.
1675. M. Clifford, Hum. Reason, in Phenix (1708), II. 532. The Extirpation of those Weeds.
1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Oak, Grubbing is only to be done where final Extirpation is designed.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., II. 180. The destroying axe generally accompanied the sword, in the joint extirpation of woods and men.
1837. Penny Cycl., VIII. 103/2. The … extirpation of couch grass is one of the first things which an experienced farmer sets himself to.
b. Surg. The operation of removing, by excision or the application of caustics, anything having an inward growth.
1706. in Phillips (ed. Kersey).
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, 330. The Difficulty of Swallowing and Breathing, occasion’d by Schirrosities of the Glands, is not to be cur’d any otherwise than by Extirpation.
1818. Art Preserv. Feet, 52. A black corn … on extirpation … is found to have a black clot of blood at the lower extremity of the stem.
1875. H. Walton, Dis. Eye, 110. Operations on the eyeball, abscission, and extirpation.
3. The action of extirpating or rooting out; extermination: a. of a nation, family, sect, species, etc. b. of an immaterial thing, e.g., heresy, a religion, vice, etc.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 56. Extirpation, that is, the pluckyng out of all maner of vyces by the rotes.
1602. T. Fitzherbert, Apol., 4 a. The extirpation of heresy.
1699. Burnet, 39 Art., vii. (1700), 95. After his Death the Jews were to fall under a terrible Curse, and an utter Extirpation.
1708. Swift, Abolit. Chr., Wks. 1755, II. I. 95. The extirpation of the gospel.
1794. Gouv. Morris, in Sparks, Life & Writ. (1832), II. 411. It will become on both sides a war of extirpation.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Empire (1854), I. 421. Extirpation of the smallpox.
1877. J. A. Allen, Amer. Bison, 559. The extirpation of the buffalo.
Hence Extirpationist, one who maintains a theory of extirpation.
1858. Border Methodism & Border Slavery, 23. The conservatist became the apologist of slaveholding in the church, and joined the pro-slavery party against the extirpationist.
1881. Cornh. Mag., Sept., 340. The Teutonic extirpationists.
