name, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To wear away by abrasion, corrosion, or chemical reaction.

   "The cliff is gradually being eroded by the waves."

2. 2
   remove soil or rock wordnet
3. 3
   To destroy gradually by an ongoing process. figuratively

   "to erode a person’s trust"

4. 4
   become ground down or deteriorate wordnet

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A district of Tamil Nadu, India.
2. 2
   The capital city of Erode district, Tamil Nadu, India.

Synonyms

All synonyms

eat awaygnawcorrodeabateablateabrade

Example

More examples

"Capitalism tends to erode the moral foundations on which it was built."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From French éroder, from Latin ērōdō.

Etymology 2

From Tamil ஈரோடு (īrōṭu)

Related phrases

chemical reactionwear away

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.