obliterate

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
obliterate /əˈblɪtəreɪt/

▶verb

• 1 destroy utterly; wipe out.

• 2 blot out; erase.

– derivatives
obliteration noun,
obliterative /-rətɪv/ adjective,
obliterator noun.

– origin C16: from L. obliterat-, obliterare ‘strike out, erase’, based on littera ‘letter, something written’.