How to remove lines in a Matplotlib plot

Question

How can I remove a line (or lines) of a matplotlib axes in such a way as it actually gets garbage collected and releases the memory back? The below code appears to delete t

Answer 1

(using the same example as the guy above)

from matplotlib import pyplot
import numpy
a = numpy.arange(int(1e3))
fig = pyplot.Figure()
ax  = fig.add_subplot(1, 1, 1)
lines = ax.plot(a)

for i, line in enumerate(ax.lines):
    ax.lines.pop(i)
    line.remove()