evict
v.v. to force someone to leave a place they are living in, usually because they have not paid rent. In computing, it means to remove a program or file from a computer's memory to make room for others.
v. to legally force a person to leave a property they occupy; in a computing context, to remove a process or data from memory to free up space for other operations.
The landlord decided to evict the tenants for non-payment.
The operating system may evict a background application to ensure the current task runs smoothly.
When the system detects low memory, it will evict the least recently used processes to maintain stability and prevent the machine from crashing under heavy load.
From Middle English evicten, evycten, borrowed from Latin ēvictus, past participle of ēvincō (“to vanquish completely”). Doublet of evince.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Verbevict
- Nouneviction
Last updated May 18, 2026