The delete index API allows to delete an existing index.

DELETE /twitter

The above example deletes an index called twitter. Specifying an index or a wildcard expression is required. Aliases cannot be used to delete an index. Wildcard expressions are resolved to matching concrete indices only.

The delete index API can also be applied to more than one index, by either using a comma separated list, or on all indices (be careful!) by using _all or * as index.

In order to disable allowing to delete indices via wildcards or _all, set action.destructive_requires_name setting in the config to true. This setting can also be changed via the cluster update settings api.