v. [f. L. ēlīmināt- ppl. stem of ēlīmināre to thrust out of doors, expel, f. ē out of + līmen, līmin-is, threshold.]
1. trans. To thrust out of doors, expel. Now somewhat humorous.
1568. Abp. Parker, Lett. (1852), 314. To help eliminate out of his [God’s] house this offendicle.
1610. G. Fletcher, Christ’s Vict., To Rdr. The secound sorte thearfore, that eliminate Poets out of their citie gates.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xiv. From which [room], with the most engaging politeness, she eliminated poor Ferkin.
† b. To carry out of doors, divulge (secrets). Obs. [Cf. Hor. Ep. I. v. 5.]
1608. Tuvil, Essayes, 115.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., I. x. § 4 (1622), 100. He did eliminate, and divulge the mysteries of their gods.
1618. Hales, Gold. Rem. (1673), II. 64. Whatsoever … we do, is … presently eliminated, and carried to them.
† c. To release, set at liberty. Obs. rare–1.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 588. Eliminate my spirit, give it range Through provinces of thought yet unexplor’d.
† 2. To pass the threshold of, come out of. rare–1.
a. 1658. Lovelace, Snail, in Poems (1864), 209. Th’art hood all ore, And ne’r eliminat’st thy dore.
3. a. Phys. To expel from the body; esp. to get rid of (waste matter, foreign substances, etc.) from the tissues by excretion. b. Chem. To disengage, expel (a constituent) from a compound.
1794–6. E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), I. 496. A week or two are required to eliminate the mercury from the constitution.
1835–6. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 66/1. The infant just eliminated from the uterus.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., iv. (1878), 73. Certain plants excrete sweet juice … for the sake of eliminating something injurious from the sap.
1877. Rosenthal, Muscles & Nerves, 87. An acid is formed, which is … again eliminated and carried away by the blood.
4. gen. To expel, exclude, remove, get rid of. Used both with reference to material and non-material objects.
1714. Lowth, Comm. Isa., Prel. Diss. 62. To be able to discharge and eliminate the errors.
1846. Grote, Greece, I. xvi. I. 533. The … tendency of Herodotus to eliminate from the myths the idea of special aid from the gods.
1861. Goschen, For. Exch., 19. Eliminating middle men and intermediate profits.
1871. R. H. Hutton, Ess., II. 306. Miss Brontë finds it needful to eliminate the supernatural.
1877. W. Thomson, Voy. Challenger, I. i. 30. Which enables the potash to be eliminated from the apparatus.
1877. J. E. Carpenter, trans. Tiele’s Hist. Relig., 32. All mythological expressions have probably been eliminated.
b. fig. To ignore, treat as non-existent, set aside as irrelevant (certain elements of a question or concept).
1850. Kingsley, Alt. Locke, I. ii. 40. I forgot the Corsair’s sinful trade…; rather, I honestly eliminated the bad element.
1859. Thackeray, Virgin., vi. (1878), 47. Eliminating him from the argument.
1870. Lubbock, Orig. Civilis., i. (1875), 3. We must eliminate these customs from our conception of that condition.
5. Algebra. To get rid of (one or more quantities) from an equation or set of equations; esp. to get rid of (one or more of the unknown quantities) in simultaneous equations by combining two or more of the equations; also, to get rid of (one or more of the variables) from an analytical equation.
1845. Penny Cycl., 1st Suppl. I. s.v., If by means of one of these we eliminate p from the rest, the process … would allow of our eliminating both x and y by one equation only.
1875. Todhunter, Algebra, 89. By this process we are said to eliminate the unknown quantity which does not appear in the single equation.
1882. Minchin, Unipl. Kinemat., 237. Eliminate x between the given relations.
fig. 1844. Gladstone, Glean., V. ii. 82–3. The Church … might be eliminated, like a constant quantity, from among those fluent materials with which history is conversant.
¶ 6. Incorrectly used for: To disengage, isolate, extract (particular elements) from a compound; to disentangle (a fact, a principle) from a mass of confused details; hence, to elicit, deduce.
1843. For. & Col. Q. Rev., II. 337. It being utterly impossible that such infinite ideas as God, eternity, [etc.], could ever be eliminated by either the will, the reason, or the finite evidence of the finite senses.
1850. McCosh, Div. Govt., IV. i. § 2. 455. We have sought to eliminate the truth by exhibiting nature in its full and living action.
1855. Bain, Senses & Int., III. ii. § 33 (1864), 523. He would very soon identify and eliminate the main fact from all the confusing circumstantials.
1872. H. Macmillan, True Vine, iii. 97. The roots, indeed, eliminate nourishment from the soil.
1877. E. R. Conder, Bas. Faith, iv. 183. The corrupt use of ‘eliminate’ for ‘educe.’
