Library / English Dictionary

ERODE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remove soil or rock

Example:

Rain eroded the terraces

Synonyms:

eat away; erode; fret

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "erode" is one way to...):

damage (inflict damage upon)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "erode"):

wash (form by erosion)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Derivation:

eroding; erosion ((geology) the mechanical process of wearing or grinding something down (as by particles washing over it))

erosion (condition in which the earth's surface is worn away by the action of water and wind)

erosive (wearing away by friction)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become ground down or deteriorate

Example:

Her confidence eroded

Synonyms:

eat at; erode; gnaw; gnaw at; wear away

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "erode" is one way to...):

crumble; decay; dilapidate (fall into decay or ruin)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

erosion (condition in which the earth's surface is worn away by the action of water and wind)

erosive (of a substance, especially a strong acid; capable of destroying or eating away by chemical action)

Credits

 Context examples: 

This means that the warm ocean currents at depth can sweep across the glacier faces and erode them.

(The Hidden Meltdown of Greenland, NASA)

This energy heats up the surrounding dust and gas, while their stellar winds dramatically erode and sculpt their birthplace.

(Stellar Nursery Blooms into View, ESO)

The team speculated that perhaps the small dust grains adorning the surface of most comets eroded during `Oumuamua’s journey through interstellar space, with only larger dust grains remaining.

(ESO’s VLT Sees `Oumuamua Getting a Boost, ESO)

These channels were eroded into the rock below the ice, leaving distinctive formations known as "tunnel valleys."

(Massive East Antarctic Ice Sheet has history of instability, National Science Foundatio)

Neurofibromas can become quite large, causing a major disfigurement, eroding bone, and compressing various peripheral nerve structures.

(Neurofibromatosis type 1, NCI Thesaurus)

Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU Boulder) in Colorado and the College of Wooster in Ohio reported a new mechanism by which warm ocean currents erode the ice shelves along the coast of Antarctica, contributing to the planet's rising oceans.

(Scientists describe how 'upside-down rivers' of warm water break Antarctica's ice shelf, Wikinews)

The first reports of formative gullies on Mars in 2000 generated excitement and headlines because they suggested the presence of liquid water on the Red Planet, the eroding action of which forms gullies here on Earth.

(NASA spacecraft observes further evidence of dry ice gullies on Mars, NASA)

Scientists speculate that sublimation of methane may be causing the plateau material to erode along the face of the cliffs, causing them to retreat south and leave the plains of Piri Planitia in their wake.

(What’s Eating at Pluto?, NASA)

Taking into account a range of plausible erosion rates, they calculated that it would have taken anywhere between roughly a hundred thousand years and a hundred million years for the ice to erode the crater to its current shape — the faster the erosion rate, the younger the crater would be within the plausible range, and vice versa.

(NASA Finds Possible Second Impact Crater Under Greenland Ice, NASA)

The dense, metallic nature of K2-229b has numerous potential origins, and one hypothesis is that its atmosphere might have been eroded by intense stellar wind and flares, as the planet is so close to its star.

(Mercury Not as Rare as Previously Thought, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)