raze

verb

1. (transitive)To level or tear down (a building, a town, etc.) to the ground; to demolish.

   “The fortreſſe was raſed and beaten downe to the erthe⸝ whiche had coſt moche the makynge therof: […]”

   “Theſe are his ſubſtance, ſinevves, armes, and ſtrength, / VVith vvhich he yoaketh your rebellious Neckes, / Razeth your Cities, and ſubuerts your Tovvnes, / And in a moment makes them deſolate.”

   “Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day of Jeruſalem; who ſayd, raſe it, raſe it: euen to the foundation thereof.”

   “[N]ovv I find, / Theſe men vvould render thee the ſhame, of all men; nor vvould pay, / Their ovvne vovves to thee, vvhen they tooke, their free and honord vvay, / From Argos hither; that till Troy, vvere by their braue hands rac't, / They vvould not turne home; […]”

   “For his further ſecuritie he [Don Roderigo] diſarmed his ſubjects; ſuch Caſtles and ſtrengths as hee vvas jealous of vvere raced, […]”

2. (figuratively, transitive)To completely remove (someone or something), especially from a place, a situation, etc.; also, to remove from existence; to destroy, to obliterate.

   “Yet at the laſt, caſting with my ſelf, that yͤ heat of thy loue might cleane be razed with yͤ coldnes of my letter, I thought it good to commit an inconuenience, that I might preuent a miſchiefe, chuſing rather to cut thée off ſhort by rigour, then to giue thée any iot of hope by ſilence.”

   “VVithout reſpect of ſex, degree or age. / He raceth all his foes vvith fire and ſvvord.”

   “Ile find a day to maſſacre them all, / And race their faction and their familie, […]”

   “It is true, the Devil did not immediately raſe out the Notion of Religion and of a God from the Minds of Men, […]”

   “[I]t seemed his desire to raze every trace of sorrow from the memory of his child; and to conceal the ravages of death under the appearance at least of wild and unceasing gaiety.”

3. (also, figuratively, transitive)To erase (a record, text, etc.), originally by scraping; to rub out, to scratch out.

   “Suppleyng to Fame, I besought her grace, / And that it wolde please her, full tenderly I prayd, / Owt of her bokis Apollo to rase.”

   “The wound alas happe in some other place, / From whence no toole away the skar can race.”

   “[D]rowſie drouping Age, / incroaching on apace, / With penſiue Plough will raze your hue / and Beauties beames deface.”

   “[N]o malice of ſucceeding daies, / can raſe thoſe records of thy laſting praiſe.”

   “Thus there he ſtood, vvhyleſt high ouer his head, / There vvritten vvas the purport of his ſin, / In cyphers ſtrange, that fevv could rightly read, / BON FONS: but bon that once had vvritten bin, / VVas raced out, and Mal vvas novv put in.”

4. (regional, transitive)To wound (someone or part of their body) superficially; to graze.

   “[T]he ſvvorde more mercifull then hee to himſelfe, vvith the ſlipping of the pommel, the point ſvvarued, and razed him but vpon the ſide: […]”

   “For vvas he not in the neareſt Neighbourhood to Death? And might not the Bullet, that perhaps raſed his Cheek, have as eaſily gone into his Head?”

   “I cou'd not bear / To raze thy Skin [with a dagger], to ſave the VVorld from Ruin.”

   “Yet did a splinter of his lance / Through Alexander's visor glance, / And razed the skin—a puny wound.”

5. (obsolete, transitive)To alter (a document) by erasing parts of it.

   “This indenture is raced all the worlde may ſe it: Ceſte indenture eſt faulcée tout le monde le peult veoyr.”

   “But I vvill take another order novv, / And race th'eternall Regiſter of time: […]”

6. (obsolete, transitive)To carve (a line, mark, etc.) into something; to incise, to inscribe; also, to carve lines, marks, etc., into (something); to engrave.

   “Generally, Barbarous People, that goe Naked, doe not onely paint Themſelues, but they povvnce and raze their Skinne, that the Painting may not be taken forth; And make it into VVorks.”

   “[Y]ou muſt mark the out-lines of your intended Hinge, […] either vvith Chalk, or elſe raſe upon the Plate vvith the corner of the Cold-Chiſſel, or any other hardned Steel that vvill ſcratch a bright ſtroke upon the Plate: […]”

   “This vvas the heart thou piercedſt, theſe are the vvounds thou razedſt, and this is the blood thou ſpilledſt: […]”

7. (obsolete, transitive)To remove (something) by scraping; also, to cut or shave (something) off.
8. (obsolete, transitive)To rub lightly along the surface of (something); brush against, to graze.

   “And novv [the Rhine] by this time augmented vvith ſnovv, melted and reſolved into vvater, and raſing as it goes the high bankes vvith their curving reaches, entreth into a round and vaſt lake (vvhich the Rhætians dvvelling thereby, call Brigantia) […]”

   “Sometimes, his feet raſed the ſurface of the water; and, at others, the ſkylight almoſt flattened his noſe.”

9. (obsolete, transitive)To scrape (something), with or as if with a razor, to remove things from its surface; also, to reduce (something) to small pieces by scraping; to grate.

   “And you are a ſoule, ſo vvhite, and ſo chaſte, / A table ſo ſmooth, and ſo nevvly ra'ſte, / As nothing cald foule, / Dare approach vvith a blot, / Or any leaſt ſpot; […]”

10. (obsolete, transitive)To shave (someone or part of their body) with a razor, etc.

    “[A] ſharpe worde moued thée, when other whiles a ſworde will not, then a friendly checke killeth thée, when a raſor cannot raſe thée.”

    “Do you fancy him retir'd that […] conſumes his time trifling amongſt Barbers, razing and ſprucing himſelf, Povvdering, Combing, and ſummoning a Council upon every Hair?”

11. (also, figuratively, obsolete, transitive)To cut, scratch, or tear (someone or something) with a sharp object; to lacerate, to slash.

    “Buckles and agglettes at vnwares, ſhall race his bowe, a thinge both euill for the fight, ⁊ perillous for freatinge.”

    “His death did raze hir heart.”

    “Dravv forth thy ſvvord, thou mightie man at armes, / Intending but to raiſe my charmed ſkin: / And Ioue himſelfe vvill ſtretch his hand from heauen, / To vvard the blovv, and ſhield me ſafe from harme, […]”

    “Paine in a horſſes teeth commeth either from pride and corruption of blood, or els from cold rhums, […] the cure is, vvith a ſharp knife to race him alongſt his gummes, cloſe vnder his teeth, both of the inſide and outſide: and then to rubbe them all ouer, either vvith pepper & ſalt vvel mingled together, or vvith claret vvine and pepper heated vpon the fire, […]”

    “Againe, a horſe vvill haue great paine in his teeth vvhen his vpper iavv teeth be ſo farre grovvne as they ouer-hang the neather iavv teeth; and therevvith alſo be ſo ſharpe, as in mouing his iavves they cut and raze the inſides of his cheekes, euen as they vvere razed vvith a knife.”

12. (intransitive, obsolete)To carve lines, marks, etc., into something.
13. (intransitive, obsolete)To graze or rub lightly along a surface.

    “Betwene theſe Ilandes and the continente, he entered into ſoo narowe ſtreyghtes, that he coulde ſcarſely turne backe the ſhippes: And theſe alſo ſo ſhalowe, that the keele of the ſhyps ſumtyme raſed on the ſandes.”

    “Rádere, […] to raze or go along the ſhore as a ſhip doth, or to flye leuell to the ground as ſome birds do.”

14. (intransitive, obsolete)To penetrate through something; to pierce.

    “[O]ne Robert Dutch of Ipſvvith, having been ſorely vvounded by a Bullet that raſed to his skull, and then mauled by the Indian Hatchets, left for dead by the Salvages,^([sic – meaning Savages]) and ſtript by them of all but his skin; […]”

15. (intransitive, obsolete, rare)Of a horse: to wear down its corner teeth as it ages, losing the black marks in their crevices.

noun

1. (obsolete)A slight wound; a scratch; also, a cut, a slit.

   “[I]f you make tvvo razes on each ſide [of the horse's hoof], it ſhall bee ſo much the better, and inlarge the hoofe the more; […]”

   “[A] man had better receive tvventy vvounds in his good name, then but a ſingle raze in his conſcience.”

   “[T]ake the Cold-Chiſſel in your left hand, and ſet the edge of it upon that mark or raſe, and vvith the Hand Hammer in your right hand ſtrike upon the Head of the Cold-Chiſſel, till you cut, or rather punch the edge of the Cold-Chiſſel almoſt through the Plate in that place: […]”

2. (alt-of, obsolete)Obsolete spelling of race (“rhizome of ginger”).
3. A swinging fence in a watercourse to prevent cattle passing through.