Dictionary

remove en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ɹɪˈmuv/ (Canada, General-American)
• /ɹɪˈmuːv/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ɹəˈmʉːv/ (New-Zealand)
• (US) audio
• /ɹɪˈmʉːv/ (Australia)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re- Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *m(y)owh₁éyeti Proto-Italic *moweō Latin moveō Latin removeō Old French removoir Anglo-Norman removerbor. Middle English removen English remove From Middle English removen, from Anglo-Norman remover, removeir, from Old French remouvoir, from Latin removēre, from re- + movēre (“to move”), equivalent to re- + move. Displaced native Old English āfierran.

Meanings

1. The act of removing something.
   • This place should be at once both school and university, not needing a remove to any other house of scholarship. [1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London]: […] [Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC:
   • There is no tree admits of transplantation so well as the Elm, for a tree of twenty years growth will admit of a remove. 1761, John Mordant, The Complete Steward:
   • And drags at each remove a lengthening chain. 1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or A Prospect of Society. A Poem. […], London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC:
2. (historical) A dish served to replace an earlier one during a meal; a part of a new course.
   • A supper brings up the rear, not forgetting the introductory luncheon, almost equalling in removes the dinner. 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford, published 2009, page 16:
   • An attempt at entrées and removes failed at the first dinner-party. 1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter XIII, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 289:
3. (UK) (at some public schools) A division of the school, especially the form prior to last.
4. A step or gradation (as in the phrase “at one remove”).
   • That vve may underſtand the full extent of theſe relations, vve must conſider, that tvvo objects are connected together in the imagination, not only vvhen the one is immediately reſembling, contiguous to, or the cauſe of the other, but alſo vvhen there is interpoſed betwixt them a third object, vvhich bears to both of them any of theſe relations. This may be carried on to a great length; tho' at the ſame time vve may obſerve, that each remove conſiderably vveakens the relation. 1739, [David Hume], “Of the Connexion or Association of Ideas”, in A Treatise of Human Nature: […], book I (Of the Understanding), London: […] John Noon, […], →OCLC, part I (Of Ideas; Their Origin, Composition, Connexion, Abstraction, &c.), page 28:
   • They were standing in the foreshortened airlock approach now, having just left a gaggle of nervous techs and agents behind the sealed bulkhead. Nobody knew what they were about to unleash, so it was best to keep it as many removes from the rest of the Site as was possible. When they opened the vault door, the filtration systems would whir to life and start sifting the air for esoteric elements. Ibanez suspected it would be months before the approach was considered clean, the doors retracted and active air and pedestrian circulation restored. 2022 September 9, HarryBlank, “The Mausoleum at Ipperwash”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 27 May 2024:
   • In his unfortunate absence at this far remove of 2007, Zevon's musicianship and irascible wit are as missed as ever. 2007, James D. McCallister, King's Highway, page 162:
   • Thus though this degree of faith is but one remove from disbelief, (denial) nevertheless as much probability is given to one side of the question as the other, and we stand, as it were, on an average between two. 1822, Paul Brown, “Of the Degrees of Faith, according to probability, and force of impression”, in A Disquisition on Faith, Washington, D.C.: […] [F]or the Author[, b]y Andrew Way, page 24:
   • A freeholder is but one remove from a legislator. 1716 January 2 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 1. Thursday, December 23. 1715.”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:
5. Distance in time or space; interval.
   • How many Masters have some stately Houses had, in the age of a small Cottage, that hath, as it were, lived, and dyed with her old Master, both dropping down together. Such vain Preservatories of us, are our Inheritances, even once removed: but look on it more Removes off, and continuing in thy Name, yet how little doth that concerne Thee (though the first Purchaser, or his Heire) Lazy Posterity, when they heare it so called know it by the Name, but not as thine; […] 1654, Richard Whitlock, Zootomia; Or, Observations on the Present Manners of the English:
6. (broadly, figuratively) Emotional distance or indifference.
7. (broadly, figuratively) State of mind allowing for a certain degree of objectivity in evaluating things.
   • The fact that one structure applied in the rainy season and another in the dry allowed Nambikwara chiefs to view their own social arrangements at one remove: to see them as not simply “given”, in the natural order of things, but as something at least partially open to human intervention. 2021 October 19, David Graeber, David Wengrowr, “Unfreezing the ice age: the truth about humanity’s deep past”, in The Guardian, UK:
8. (dated) The transfer of one's home or business to another place; a move.
   • It is an English proverb that three removes are as bad as a fire. 1855, John Henry Newman, Callista:
9. The act of resetting a horse's shoe.
   • His horse wanted two removes; your horse wanted nails 1731 (date written; published 1745), [Jonathan] Swift, Directions to Servants […], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], and M. Cooper, […], →OCLC:

Forms

Deriveds

a far remove

remove en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio
• /ɹɪˈmuv/ (Canada, General-American)
• /ɹɪˈmuːv/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ɹəˈmʉːv/ (New-Zealand)
• (US) audio
• /ɹɪˈmʉːv/ (Australia)

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Italic *wre- Latin re- Proto-Indo-European *m(y)ewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-yeti Proto-Indo-European *-éyeti Proto-Indo-European *m(y)owh₁éyeti Proto-Italic *moweō Latin moveō Latin removeō Old French removoir Anglo-Norman removerbor. Middle English removen English remove From Middle English removen, from Anglo-Norman remover, removeir, from Old French remouvoir, from Latin removēre, from re- + movēre (“to move”), equivalent to re- + move. Displaced native Old English āfierran.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To delete.
2. (transitive) To move from one place to another, especially to take away.
   • Thou ſhalt not remoue thy neghbours marke which they of olde tyme haue ſett in thyne enheritaunce that thou enheretteſt in the londe which the Lorde thy God geueth the to enioye it. 1530 January 27 (Gregorian calendar), W[illiam] T[yndale], transl., [The Pentateuch] (Tyndale Bible), Malborow [Marburg], Hesse: […] Hans Luft [actually Antwerp: Johan Hoochstraten], →OCLC, Deuteronomye xix:[14], folio XXXV, recto:
   • He removed the marbles from the bag.
   • His first indication of coming events was to remove the key from the outside to the inside of the door. 1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados:
   • Now that she was rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed, she had reverted to her normal gaiety. 1963, Margery Allingham, “Dangerous Lady”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 36:
3. (formal, obsolete, transitive) To move from one place to another, especially to take away. ▸ To replace a dish within a course.
   • But Richmond[…]appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw[…]that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either. 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
4. (transitive) To murder.
5. (transitive) To dismiss a batsman.
6. (transitive) To discard, set aside, especially something abstract (a thought, feeling, etc.).
   • The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation. 2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10:
   • Eternall thraldom was to her more liefe, / Then loſſe of chaſtitie, or chaunge of loue : / Dye had ſhe rather in tormenting griefe, / Then any ſhould of falſeneſſe her reproue, / Or looſeneſſe, that ſhe lightly did remoue. 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 524:
7. (archaic, intransitive) To depart, to leave; to move oneself or be moved.
   • THenne the kynge dyd doo calle syre Gawayne / syre Borce / syr Lyonel and syre Bedewere / and commaunded them to goo strayte to syre Lucius / and saye ye to hym that hastely he remeue oute of my land / And yf he wil not / bydde hym make hym redy to bataylle and not distresse the poure peple 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, “vj”, in Le Morte Darthur, book V:
   • […] you shall set your stakes at the brim of the water, each a yard apart, and so yedder them with your yedders, and so stake them with your strut stowers, that they may stand three tides without removing by the force thereof. 1855, Francis Kildale Robinson, A Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases: Collected in Whitby and the Neighbourhood. With Examples of Their Colloquial Use, and Allusions to Local Customs and Trditions, page 129:
8. (archaic, intransitive) To change one's residence or place of business; to move.
   • About a year ago we removed to the above address, which we leased on a five-year lease with privilege of cancellation in one year. 1925, W. K. & Co., “How to Avoid a Controversy Over Fixtures Between Landlord and Tenant”, in American Independent Baker: Official Organ of the Retail Bakers, volume 23, page 20:
   • Now my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place where I lived. 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:
   • I am going to remove. / Where are you going to remove to? / I don't know yet. / When will you know? 1886, Lim Hiong Seng, Handbook of the Swatow Vernacular, Singapore: Koh Yew Hean Press:
   • Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane. c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
   • Shortly after this, my father removed, and settled in the same county, about ten miles above Greenville. 1834, David Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of, Nebraska, published 1987, page 20:
9. To dismiss or discharge from office.
   • The President removed many postmasters.

Forms

Antonyms

settle (antonym(s) of “move something from one place to another”) · place (antonym(s) of “move something from one place to another”) · add (antonym(s) of “move something from one place to another”)

Deriveds

removeable · remover · removability · remove kebab · removable · removalist · boyremove · removal

Hypernyms

split · diminish

Hyponyms

undress · kick out · unadd

Relateds

delete

Synonyms

take · unstay · remove · take off · take away · deduct · subtract · abate · subduct · knock off · bate

Translations (176)

ar أَزَالَ (to take away) · ang āfierran (to take away) · vi chuyển đi (to take away) · sa हरति (to take away) · gl quitar (to take away) · fi hylätä (to discard, set aside) · fur eliminâ (to take away) · ln botola (to take away) · fr enlever (to take away) · uk усува́ти (to take away) · txb rutk- (to take away) · tl tanggalin (to take away) · uk усува́ти (to discard, set aside) · hu megszüntet (to discard, set aside) · vi dọn đi (to take away) · eo forpreni (to take away) · no ta bort (to take away) · ar نَقَلَ (to take away) · lv aizvākt (to take away) · sc istejare (to take away) · oc levar (to take away) · ckb لابردن (to take away) · zza leqnen (to change one's residence) · tr uzaklaştırmak (to take away) · sa जिहर्ति (to take away) · ga scaoil (to take away) · fi siirtää (to take away) · de umziehen (to change one's residence) · ca treure (to take away) · pl odjąć (to take away) · km យកចេញ (to take away) · pl pozbywać (to murder someone) · pt retirar (to take away) · ru устраня́ть (to take away) · pl przeprowadzić (to change one's residence) · lv pārcelties (to change one's residence) · sq fshi (to take away) · ca llevar (to take away) · ar جَذَبَ (to take away) · dlm scutro (to take away) · pl odejmować (to take away) · ro îndepărta (to take away) · hu kiküszöböl (to discard, set aside) · it levare (to take away) · hu elköltözik (to change one's residence) · la auferō (to take away) · it portare via (to take away) · it scartare (to discard, set aside) · de beseitigen (to murder someone) · ar أَخْرَجَ (to take away) · ja 退ける (to take away) · wa likider (to murder someone) · sv avlägsna (to take away) · la adimō (to take away) · ru убира́ть (to take away) · uk віднести́ (to take away) · ja 取り去る (to take away) · fa برداشتن (to take away) · da flytte (to change one's residence) · sq hiq (to take away) · hu levesz (to take away) · pt tirar (to take away) · hi हटाना (to take away) · te తీయు (to take away) · sc trancire (to take away) · fi tehdä selvää (to murder someone) · cmn 消除 (to take away) · fi muuttaa (to change one's residence) · ota گوتورمك (to take away) · lv noņemt (to take away) · sl odstraniti (to take away) · pox afstöŕăl (to take away) · hu eltakarít (to discard, set aside) · pl usuwać (to take away) · da eliminere (to murder someone) · bg отстранявам (to take away) · el βγάζω (to take away) · ckb جولاندن (to take away) · la removeō (to take away) · sq zhduk (to murder someone) · cs odstranit (to take away) · it togliere (to take away) · gl extraer (to take away) · th ลบ (to take away) · bg премествам се (to change one's residence) · pl usunąć (to take away) · fi ottaa (to take away) · hu költözik (to change one's residence) · tr kaldırmak (to take away) · fi murhata (to murder someone) · wa rissaetchî (to take away) · es toller (to take away) · hu eltávolít (to take away) · no flytte (to change one's residence) · mh bōk (to take away) · bcl hali (to take away) · ja 除く (to take away) · no fjerne (to take away) · pt remover (to take away) · sv ta bort (to take away) · fur rimovi (to take away) · te తొలగించు (to take away) · sq zhvendos (to change one's residence) · zza hewaden (to murder someone) · de verdrängen (to discard, set aside) · de entfernen (to take away) · qu hurquy (to take away) · pl pozbyć (to murder someone) · fi poistaa (to take away) · da fjerne (to take away) · pl przenieść (to change one's residence) · it estirpare (to take away) · bcl tangkas (to take away) · cmn 除去 (to take away) · hi अलग करना (to take away) · af verwyder (to take away) · hu elvesz (to take away) · uk усу́нути (to discard, set aside) · sl odstranjevati (to take away) · mi tauwehe (to take away) · sq largo (to discard, set aside) · ca retirar (to take away) · eo forigi (to take away) · cs odebrat (to take away) · hu kiiktat (to discard, set aside) · es quitar (to take away) · sc istesare (to take away) · mh eakto (to take away) · scn livari (to take away) · it eliminare (to murder someone) · he הסיר (to take away) · eu kendu (to take away) · es remover (to take away) · mt neħħa (to take away) · lv pārvākties (to change one's residence) · sq zhvendos (to discard, set aside) · da forkaste (to discard, set aside) · sc iscotare (to take away) · got 𐌿𐍃𐌽𐌹𐌼𐌰𐌽 (to take away) · hu leszed (to take away) · it eradicare (to take away) · tl alisin (to take away) · nl weghalen (to take away) · uk відноси́ти (to take away) · tr çıkarmak (to take away) · rm allontanar (to take away) · uk усу́нути (to take away) · kk аластау (to take away) · hu kivesz (to take away) · th ถอด (to take away) · ro scoate (to discard, set aside) · ml മാറ്റുക (to discard, set aside) · ko 치우다 (to take away) · hu eltöröl (to discard, set aside) · nl verwijderen (to take away) · mi karokaro (to take away) · lt šalinti (to take away) · it allontanare (to take away) · zza wedaren (to take away) · fr ôter (to take away) · it asportare (to take away) · hu elvisz (to take away) · it rimuovere (to take away) · ro scoate (to take away) · kix thǖvâ (to discard, set aside) · rup scot (to take away) · fur jevâ (to take away) · bg елиминирам (to murder someone) · hy հանել (to take away) · hu elmozdít (to take away) · ro da la o parte (to discard, set aside) · sl preseliti (to change one's residence) · sl preseljevati (to change one's residence) · oc traire (to take away) · sl likvidirati (to murder someone) · ja 移す (to take away)