exterminatory

[ ik-stur-muh-nuh-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee ]

adjective

1. serving or tending to exterminate.

Other Words From

• nonex·termi·native adjective
• nonex·termi·na·tory adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of exterminatory¹

First recorded in 1780–90; exterminate + -ory ¹

Example Sentences

“We cannot live under this exterminatory threat.”

From Slate

“There’s an exterminatory amount of precedence for this … The Trump administration also did this very thing, but also it has happened before,” Ms. Ocasio-Cortez said in a separate interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

From Washington Times

But her conviction made clear that participation in an exterminatory system, at whatever level, deserves to be recognized as a crime.

From Washington Post

These exterminatory Islamist views are not narrowly political or military.

From US News

In 2014, what strange pleasures — and horrors — can be found in rising adult fears in an exterminatory world? 

From Salon