How do I delete an object from an Entity Framework model without first loading it?

It is worth knowing that the Entity Framework supports both to Linq to Entities and Entity SQL. If you find yourself wanting to do deletes or updates that could potentially affect many records you can use the equivalent of ExecuteNonQuery.

In Entity SQL this might look like

   Using db As New HelloEfEntities

        Dim qStr = "Delete " & _
                  "FROM Employee"
        db.ExecuteStoreCommand(qStr)
        db.SaveChanges()
    End Using

In this example, db is my ObjectContext. Also note that the ExecuteStoreCommand function takes an optional array of parameters.