Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (v. t.) To blot out; to cause to disappear; to efface; to render undecipherable, as a writing.

2. (v. t.) To wear out; to remove or destroy utterly by any means; to render imperceptible; as. to obliterate ideas; to obliterate the monuments of antiquity.

3. (a.) Scarcely distinct; -- applied to the markings of insects.