Other forms: removed, removing, removes
To remove something is to take it away from where it was. Remove the lid, remove a stain, remove somebody from a post.
It is more formal than take off or get rid of, which are what people say. It is used for objects, for stains, for people from positions, and for content from a website. The noun is removal, which in British English also means moving house: a removal van, a removal firm. Note removed as an adjective meaning distant — far removed from reality — and once removed in family relationships, meaning a generation apart.
1verbremoveTo take something away from where it is.
“Remove the packaging before you switch it on.”
2verbdismissTo dismiss somebody from a position.
“Two directors were removed in a single afternoon.”
3verbridTo get rid of a mark or a problem.
“Nothing will remove that stain.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
remove is a way of taking away.
Latin removere is re-, back, plus movere, to move — the same verb behind motion, promote and emotion, which is a moving out. To remove is simply to move back, and the formality is entirely English.
Anglo-Norman
remover
Middle English
removen
English, today
remove
Built from
From Middle English removen, from Anglo-Norman remover, from removoir. From Middle English removen, from Anglo-Norman remover, removeir, from Old French remouvoir, from Latin removeo, from re- + moveo (“to move”), equivalent to re- + move. Displaced native āfierran.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA