Removals

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The acts of taking something away or eliminating it ; the processes of moving furniture or possessions from one location to another
2. Instances where items or obstacles are taken away or discarded ; occasions involving relocating household or office goods
3. Events that involve the extraction or elimination of objects ; the tasks of shifting belongings to a different place

Etymology: "Removals" is the plural of "removal", a noun meaning the transporting of household goods from one home to another. The base word "remove" comes from Latin "removere", built from "re-" (back, again) and "movere" (to move), so the core idea is moving something back or away. English took "remove" from Anglo-Norman "removeir" and later French "removoir" in the Middle English period. The noun "removal" is simply "remove" with the suffix "-al", which turns a verb into a noun of action, so "a removal" is the act of removing. The everyday sense of household moving is a narrow specialisation of that general idea of taking something away from where it stands. Nothing in the word's history singles out furniture or relocation; the meaning narrowed in later usage, when people began speaking of moving a whole household as a removal.

Synonyms: eliminations, extractions, departures, dismissals

Antonyms: additions, inclusions, insertions