1. The action of erasing or obliterating.
1755. Young, Centaur, vi. Wks. 1757, IV. 277. The desperate erasure of his christian name.
1817. W. Selwyn, Law Nisi Prius, II. 825. The devise to the trustees was not revoked by the erasure.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., ii. (1852), 31. To select a part [of a book] which we may happen to approve, and by evasive arts to effect the erasure of the other part.
1861. May, Const. Hist. (1863), I. i. 24. The erasure of his name from the list of privy councillors.
b. An instance of erasing or obliterating.
1734. trans. Rollin’s Anc. Hist. (1827), I. II. 239. A good performance is not to be expected without many erasures and corrections.
1817. Coleridge, Biog. Lit., II. 77. If the number of these fancied erasures did not startle him.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Handy Bk. Prop. Law, xix. 146. The erasure was not made by the testator with an intention to revoke his will.
2. concr. The place where a word or letter has been erased or obliterated.
Mod. The word was written over an erasure.
3. Total destruction; ‘wiping out.’ rare.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxxiv. III. 366 (O.). The words, the most expressive of total extirpation and erasure, are applied to the calamities which they inflicted on seventy cities of the Eastern empire.
1851. D. Wilson, Preh. Ann. (1863), II. IV. iv. 267. Repeated destruction of the first Christian settlements, and erasure of the accompanying progress of arts and social refinement.
