Post History

The [other answer](/posts/290948/290949#answer-290949) already provides the more straighforward solution (`push` with `--delete` option).

But there's an older syntax that also works:

```bash
git push <remote-name> :<branch-name>
```

Note that there's the `:` character before the branch name. Example:

```bash
git push origin :my-branch
```

This is a special case of the refspec syntax. As [explained in the documentation](https://git-scm.com/docs/git-push/#Documentation/git-push.txt-ltrefspecgt82308203), the general case is `<src>:<dst>`. The docs describes many cases not pertinent to the question, the relevant one is when `src` is empty:

> *Pushing an empty `<src>` allows you to delete the `<dst>` ref from the remote repository.*

That's why pushing `:my-branch` deletes `my-branch` in the remote repository.

---

But IMO, this syntax is weird and harder to remember than the `--delete` option (which is the one I use, BTW).