Erase, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Erased; p. pr. & vb. n.. Erasing.]
Etymology: [L. erasus, p. p. of eradere to erase; e out + radere to scrape, scratch, shave. See Rase.]
1. To rub or scrape out, as letters or characters written, engraved, or painted; to efface; to expunge; to cross out; as, to erase a word or a name.
2. Fig.: To obliterate; to expunge; to blot out; -- used of ideas in the mind or memory. Burke.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for erase; he lists it under cancel.
Where he writes about it:
Cancel, efface, erase, expunge, and obliterate have as their first meaning the removal of written characters or other forms of record. — from cancel
To cancel is, literally, to make a lattice by cross-lines, exactly our English cross out; to efface is to rub off, smooth away the face, as of an inscription; to erase is to scratch out, commonly for the purpose of writing something else in the same space; to expunge, is to punch out with some sharp instrument, so as to show that the words are no longer part of the writing; to obliterate is to cover over or remove, as a letter, as was done by reversing the Roman stylus, and rubbing out with the rounded end what had been written with the point on the waxen tablet. — from cancel