raze

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.

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.

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.

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?

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: […]

A slight wound; a scratch; also, a cut, a slit.

And verely the Emperour Nero vvas ſo greatly enamoured vpon one image of Alexander [the Great], that hee commaunded it to be guilded all over: but aftervvards, ſeeing that the more coſt vvas beſtovved upon it by laying on gold, the leſſe vvas the art ſeene of the firſt vvorkman [Lysippos], ſo that it loſt all the beautie and grace that it had by that means, he cauſed the gold to be taken off againe: and verely, the ſaid image thus unguilded as it vvas, ſeemed farre more precious than it vvas vvhiles it ſtood ſo enriched vvith gold, notvvithſtanding all the hackes, cuts, gaſhes, and raſes all over the bodie vvherein the gold did ſticke, remained ſtill, vvhich in ſome ſort might disfigure it.

[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; […]

Obsolete spelling of race (“rhizome of ginger”).