remove
Verbremoves, removing, removed
Noun pluralremoves
Formsremoves, removing, removed
Pluralremoves
- 1To move something from one place to another, especially by taking it away.
Workers remove the snow from the sidewalk each winter.
He removed the painting from the wall to clean it.
UsageUsually remove something from a place: remove the painting from the wall.
Note
William Tyndale's Pentateuch of 1530 already forbids anyone to remove a neighbor's boundary mark, the "take away" emphasis this sense still carries.
- 2To get rid of something so that it no longer exists or appears, such as text or data, a mark, or a problem or feeling.
Remove the duplicate entries before exporting the spreadsheet.
The editor removed two paragraphs from the final draft.
Similarclear
- 3To dismiss or discharge someone from a job, office, or position.
Congress has the power to remove a president through impeachment.
The committee removed him from his post for misconduct.
UsageUsually remove someone from office or from a post; often passive: he was removed from his job.
- 4A distance or degree of separation between things in space, time, or relationship, as in "at one remove".
The events happened at a considerable remove from one another in time.
Most of what we know about the battle reaches us at one remove, through letters written by the soldiers' families.
UsageUsually at a remove or at one remove, often with a measure: at this remove of forty years.
Note
The past participle carries this sense as readily as the noun does. Richard Whitlock's Zootomia (1654) calls inheritances vain preservers of us "even once removed", meaning one generation away, and then looks at them "more Removes off", further down the line.
Less common meanings
- 5The act of moving or transferring someone or something from one place to another; a removal.
And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
1764, Oliver Goldsmith, The TravellerThis 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 HartlibSimilarremoval, transfer, relocation
Note
In Milton, Goldsmith and Mordant, the noun names an act of relocation rather than disposal. A student might make a remove to another house of scholarship, and a twenty-year elm will "admit of a remove" when it is transplanted. Goldsmith's 1764 line "drags at each remove a lengthening chain" counts each move as a stage of a journey, close to the "distance" sense in "at one remove."
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Milton uses the noun for transfer to another educational institution, rather than disposal. en.wiktionary.org
- John Mordant uses 'remove' for transplanting an elm of twenty years' growth. en.wiktionary.org
- Goldsmith's quoted line was first published in 1764, in The Traveller, despite the title-page date of 1765. gutenberg.org
- The quotation is accurate; its context supports interpreting each 'remove' as a further move during the speaker's travels. gutenberg.org
- The noun also has a distance or interval sense, supporting the stated semantic connection. en.wiktionary.org
- 6To kill someone deliberately and unlawfully; to murder.
The crime boss ordered his men to remove the informant quietly.
They removed two rivals before the police caught on.
UsageA euphemism that avoids saying kill: a crime boss orders his men to remove a witness.
Similareliminate, kill, murder, liquidate, assassinate
- 7A state of emotional distance or detachment from something, which can make one cool toward it or able to judge it objectively.
There was a cool remove in her voice as she described the breakup.
He greeted the news with a certain remove, oddly detached from it all.
UsageOften with a certain remove or at a remove: she spoke with a strange remove.
- 8To change one's home or place of business; to move.
Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane.
c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”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 VernacularNote
Moving house is the heart of this one, often with from or to marking the places. Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) speaks of wishing never "to remove from the place where I lived", and David Crockett's Narrative (1834) has a father who "removed, and settled". Lim Hiong Seng's Handbook of the Swatow Vernacular (1886) still drills "Where are you going to remove to?" Today it is archaic, and move has replaced it.
- 9To depart or leave; to move oneself, or be moved, from one place to another.
Note
An intransitive use in which the subject departs or shifts position. In Malory's Le Morte Darthur (1485), the king orders Lucius to "remeue oute of my land". Francis Kildale Robinson's A Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases (1855) describes stakes that stand three tides "without removing", meaning without being shifted from their place. It is now archaic, so keep it for deliberately old-fashioned prose.
- 10A relocation of one's home or business from one place to another; a move.
It is an English proverb that three removes are as bad as a fire.
1855, John Henry Newman, CallistaSimilarmove, relocation
Note
The household word behind a proverb. John Henry Newman's Callista (1855) quotes the English saying that "three removes are as bad as a fire", counting the cost of uprooting a home. The sense is now dated, and outside that proverb ordinary prose simply says move.
- 11In cricket, to dismiss a batsman, ending their stay at the crease.
The off-spinner removed both openers within three overs.
Bowlers who remove top-order batsmen early can change the course of a match.
Similardismiss
Note
Mostly a bowler's verb. The bowler or bowling side is usually the subject and the batsman the object. It works as an alternative to dismiss in talk about cricket and suggests clearing a batsman from the crease rather than any particular way of getting him out. It sits naturally with counts and order, as in removing both openers or the top order.
- 12To take away one dish and serve another in its place within a course of a meal.
Note
A dining-room verb that names the replacement with with. In Georgette Heyer's The Unknown Ajax (1959), pickled crab "had been removed with a damson pie", meaning the pie took its place. The dish taken off is the object, and the dish brought on follows with. Treat it as obsolete and formal, a word for period settings. Its partner is the noun for the replacing dish.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Remove can mean replacing a dish within a course. en.wiktionary.org
- Georgette Heyer wrote The Unknown Ajax, first published in 1959. en.wikipedia.org
- The quotation is accurate; the crab is replaced by the pie, introduced with 'with'. The grammatical explanation follows from this example. en.wiktionary.org
- The noun remove can name the replacing dish. en.wiktionary.org
- 13At some British schools, a division of the school, especially the form just before the final one.
- 14Formerly, at a formal dinner, a dish brought in to replace another dish that had been cleared away.
An attempt at entrées and removes failed at the first dinner-party.
1842, [Katherine] Thomson, Widows and Widowers - 15The act of taking off and resetting a horse's shoe.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English removen, borrowed through Anglo-Norman and Old French from Latin removēre, which combines re- with movēre ("to move"). It displaced the native Old English word āfierran.
Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Remove derives from Middle English removen, through Anglo-Norman and Old French, ultimately from Latin removēre. en.wiktionary.org
- Latin removēre combines re- with movēre, meaning “to move.” en.wiktionary.org
- Remove displaced the native Old English word āfierran. en.wiktionary.org