From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
eliminate
v 1: terminate, end, or take out; "Let's eliminate the course on
Akkadian hieroglyphics"; "Socialism extinguished these
archaic customs"; "eliminate my debts" [syn: extinguish,
eliminate, get rid of, do away with]
2: do away with [syn: obviate, rid of, eliminate] [ant:
ask, call for, demand, involve, necessitate,
need, postulate, require, take]
3: kill in large numbers; "the plague wiped out an entire
population" [syn: eliminate, annihilate, extinguish,
eradicate, wipe out, decimate, carry off]
4: dismiss from consideration or a contest; "John was ruled out
as a possible suspect because he had a strong alibi"; "This
possibility can be eliminated from our consideration" [syn:
rule out, eliminate, winnow out, reject]
5: eliminate from the body; "Pass a kidney stone" [syn:
excrete, egest, eliminate, pass]
6: remove from a contest or race; "The cyclist has eliminated
all the competitors in the race"
7: remove (an unknown variable) from two or more equations
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Eliminate \E*lim"i*nate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Eliminated; p.
pr. & vb. n. Eliminating.] [L. eliminatus, p. p. of
eliminare; e out + limen threshold; prob. akin to limes
boundary. See Limit.]
1. To put out of doors; to expel; to discharge; to release;
to set at liberty.
[1913 Webster]
Eliminate my spirit, give it range
Through provinces of thought yet unexplored.
--Young.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Alg.) To cause to disappear from an equation; as, to
eliminate an unknown quantity.
[1913 Webster]
3. To set aside as unimportant in a process of inductive
inquiry; to leave out of consideration.
[1913 Webster]
Eliminate errors that have been gathering and
accumulating. --Lowth.
[1913 Webster]
4. To obtain by separating, as from foreign matters; to
deduce; as, to eliminate an idea or a conclusion. [Recent,
and not well authorized]
[1913 Webster]
5. (Physiol.) To separate; to expel from the system; to
excrete; as, the kidneys eliminate urea, the lungs
carbonic acid; to eliminate poison from the system.
[1913 Webster]