Rases

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. Tears down a building or structure completely, reducing it to the ground ; wipes out or scrapes away writing or markings from a surface
2. Destroys a structure until nothing standing remains ; removes or scratches out letters, words, or marks that were written
3. Levels a building to the ground entirely ; deletes or scrapes away inscribed text or lettering from a surface

Etymology: "Rases" is simply the plural of "rase," a noun that names a level measure of grain, or a mark on an animal's head. The sense "tears down completely" is the verb "raze," and "rases" is its third-person form. The verb is a variant of "race," an older word meaning to scrape, cut, or pluck off, and its meaning was pulled toward "raze" over time. The verb has a surprising starting point. Its Middle English form "rasen" meant "to rage" or "to enrage," borrowed in spirit from Middle Dutch "razen," which described a mad or rabid animal. That sense of rushing violence then merged with the older idea of scraping things clean, so that a building could be scraped off the ground. The Latin root "rādō," meaning "to scrape" or "to shave," sits behind the noun, which came through Anglo-Norman French as a measure of grain struck level with a scraping stick.

Synonyms: raze, demolish, level

Antonyms: build, construct