Remove

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɹɪˈmuːv/
• Rhymes: -uːv

Origin

From Middle English remeven, removen, from Anglo-Norman remuver, removeir, from Old French remouvoir, from Latin removēre, from re- + movēre ("to move")

Full definition of remove

Verb

1. (transitive) To move something from one place to another, especially to take away.
• Bible, Deuteronomy xix. 14Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark.
• 1963, Margery Allingham, The China Governess Chapter 2, Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety.  She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.
2. He removed the marbles from the bag.
3. (transitive) To murder.
4. (cricket, transitive) To dismiss a batsman.
5. (transitive) To discard, set aside, especially something abstract (a thought, feeling, etc.).
• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.viii:Die had she rather in tormenting griefe,
  Then any should of falsenesse her reproue,
  Or loosenesse, that she lightly did remoue.
• 2013-06-21, Karen McVeigh, US rules human genes can't be patented, The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.
6. (intransitive, now rare) To depart, leave.
• 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book V:And loke that ye ryde streyte unto Sir Lucius and sey I bydde hym in haste to remeve oute of my londys.
7. (intransitive) To change one's residence; to move.
• William ShakespeareTill Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane.
• 1719 Daniel Defoe, Robinson CrusoeNow my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place where I lived.
• 1834, Davy Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of, Nebraska 1987, p. 20:Shortly after this, my father removed, and settled in the same county, about ten miles above Greenville.
8. To dismiss or discharge from office.
   The President removed many postmasters.

Synonyms

• unstay

Antonyms

• add

Derived terms

• removable
• removal
• remover

Noun

1. The act of removing something.
• unknown date MiltonThis place should be at once both school and university, not needing a remove to any other house of scholarship.
• unknown date GoldsmithAnd drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
2. (archaic) Removing a dish at a meal in order to replace it with the next course, a dish thus replaced, or the replacement.
3. (British) (at some public schools) A division of the school, especially the form prior to last
4. A step or gradation (as in the phrase "at one remove")
• unknown date AddisonA freeholder is but one remove from a legislator.
5. Distance in time or space; interval.
• 2007, James D. McCallister, King's Highway, In his unfortunate absence at this far remove of 2007, Zevon's musicianship and irascible wit are as missed as ever.
6. (dated) The transfer of one's home or business to another place; a move.
• unknown date J. H. NewmanIt is an English proverb that three removes are as bad as a fire.
7. The act of resetting a horse's shoe.