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EXTIRPATION

Volume 17 · 62 words · 1810 Edition

(formed of ex and stirps, "root,") the act of pulling up or destroying a thing to the very roots. Among the prayers of the Roman jubilee, there is one for the extirpation of heresy.

EXTIRPATION is also used, in Surgery, for cutting off any part entirely; as a wen, &c., or the eating it away, as a wart, &c., by corrosive medicines.