obliterate
uh-BLIT-uh-raytverbMeaning to wipe out so completely that no trace is left
Memory hook OB-LITER-ATE: wipe out every LETTER. Lila writes her name in huge letters on the sand, and one big wave wipes out every letter until no trace is left; the wave obliterates it.
The tide obliterated the names we had written in the sand.
In context Years of wind and rain had obliterated the painted letters on the old barn, so no one remembered what the farm had once been called.
Similar wipe out, erase, eliminate, efface
Opposite preserve, keep, restore
From Latin obliterare, “to blot out, to make forgotten”: ob- (against) + littera (letter).