diff --git a/NAMESPACE b/NAMESPACE
index 6bf6f83f..7d63581d 100644
--- a/NAMESPACE
+++ b/NAMESPACE
@@ -25,6 +25,8 @@ export(str_match)
 export(str_match_all)
 export(str_order)
 export(str_pad)
+export(str_remove)
+export(str_remove_all)
 export(str_replace)
 export(str_replace_all)
 export(str_replace_na)
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 98317030..efa4af9f 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -12,6 +12,10 @@
 
 * `str_trunc()` now preserves NAs (@ClaytonJY, #162)
 
+* New `str_remove()` and `str_remove_all()` functions. These wrap 
+  `str_replace()` and `str_replace_all()` to remove patterns from strings.
+  (@Shians, #178)
+
 # stringr 1.2.0
 
 ## API changes
diff --git a/R/remove.r b/R/remove.r
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8fdc5a38
--- /dev/null
+++ b/R/remove.r
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#' Remove matched patterns in a string.
+#'
+#' Alias for str_replace(string, pattern, "").
+#'
+#' @inheritParams str_detect
+#'
+#' @return A character vector.
+#' @seealso \code{\link{str_replace}} for the underlying implementation.
+#' @export
+#' @examples
+#' fruits <- c("one apple", "two pears", "three bananas")
+#' str_remove(fruits, "[aeiou]")
+#' str_remove_all(fruits, "[aeiou]")
+str_remove <- function(string, pattern) {
+  str_replace(string, pattern, "")
+}
+
+#' @export
+#' @rdname str_remove
+str_remove_all <- function(string, pattern) {
+  str_replace_all(string, pattern, "")
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/man/str_remove.Rd b/man/str_remove.Rd
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..261c8113
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/str_remove.Rd
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
+% Please edit documentation in R/remove.r
+\name{str_remove}
+\alias{str_remove}
+\alias{str_remove_all}
+\title{Remove matched patterns in a string.}
+\usage{
+str_remove(string, pattern)
+
+str_remove_all(string, pattern)
+}
+\arguments{
+\item{string}{Input vector. Either a character vector, or something
+coercible to one.}
+
+\item{pattern}{Pattern to look for.
+
+  The default interpretation is a regular expression, as described
+  in \link[stringi]{stringi-search-regex}. Control options with
+  \code{\link{regex}()}.
+
+  Match a fixed string (i.e. by comparing only bytes), using
+  \code{\link{fixed}(x)}. This is fast, but approximate. Generally,
+  for matching human text, you'll want \code{\link{coll}(x)} which
+  respects character matching rules for the specified locale.
+
+  Match character, word, line and sentence boundaries with
+  \code{\link{boundary}()}. An empty pattern, "", is equivalent to
+  \code{boundary("character")}.}
+}
+\value{
+A character vector.
+}
+\description{
+Alias for str_replace(string, pattern, "").
+}
+\examples{
+fruits <- c("one apple", "two pears", "three bananas")
+str_remove(fruits, "[aeiou]")
+str_remove_all(fruits, "[aeiou]")
+}
+\seealso{
+\code{\link{str_replace}} for the underlying implementation.
+}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-remove.r b/tests/testthat/test-remove.r
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..9eaadeba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-remove.r
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+context("Removal")
+
+test_that("basic removal works", {
+  expect_equal(str_remove_all("abababa", "ba"), "a")
+  expect_equal(str_remove("abababa", "ba"), "ababa")
+})