get rid of

verb

1. dispose of; “Get rid of these old shoes!”; “The company got rid of all the dead wood”

   Synonyms

   • remove

   More specific

   • discard, fling, toss, toss out, toss away, chuck out, cast aside, dispose, throw out, cast out, throw away, cast away, put away, slough off, weed out (more) , comb out, work off, cull, dump, ditch, unmuzzle, deaerate, de-aerate, decaffeinate, decarbonate, decerebrate, dechlorinate, defat, defibrinate, degrease, deionize, delist, delocalize, deoxygenate, destain, desulfurize, desulphurize, detick, devein, fettle, flesh, flense, kern, pith, scum, unbridle

2. terminate, end, or take out; “Let’s eliminate the course on Akkadian hieroglyphics”; “Socialism extinguished these archaic customs”; “eliminate my debts”

   Synonyms

   • extinguish, eliminate, do away with

   Less specific

   • destroy, destruct

   More specific

   • cancel out, wipe out, decouple, decouple, obliterate, knock out, drown, cut out, cut, prune, rationalize, rationalise, snuff out, extinguish, exclude (more) , except, leave out, leave off, omit, take out

3. do away with; “Slavery was abolished in the mid-19th century in America and in Russia”

   Synonyms

   • abolish

   Antonym

   • establish, set up, found, launch

   More specific

   • cashier, abrogate