In the context of data, erase == delete
erase
VERB
[WITH OBJECT]
1 Rub out or remove (writing or marks)
‘graffiti had been erased from the wall’
1.1 Remove all traces of; destroy or obliterate.
‘over twenty years the last vestiges of a rural economy were erased’
‘the magic of the landscape erased all else from her mind’
1.2 Remove recorded material from (a magnetic tape or medium); delete (data) from a computer's memory.
‘the tape could be magnetically erased and reused’
‘the file has been erased from the hard disk’
Biting the hand that feeds IT
