Remove Icons From Dock

Granny Smith 1:

“Remove Icons From Dock:[...] I just don't know why they remained there once I had finished using those apps.”

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Use Force Quit...

One of those apps is up an running, so Force Quit all open apps and relaunch Finder:

• Force Quitting Open Apps: Go To: Apple Menu > Click: Force Quit... > Select: Each Item > Click: Force Quit Button
• Relaunching Finder: Go to: Apple Menu > Click: Force Quit... > Select: Finder > Click: Relaunch Button

Next, restart the Mac.

Dragging an icon off the Dock to remove that app from the Dock will have no effect on storage usage.

If you’re referring to the recently used apps off to the right, those will cycle through as you use other apps.

Or you can disable that feature.

How to free up storage space on your Mac - Apple Support

Use the Dock on Mac - Apple Support

Granny Smith 1 wrote:

I had already followed the steps to free up space before reaching out to this community. While I did free up some space, I still don't have enough storage to download the latest security update. I am currently running Mojave version 10.14.6. Can I delete earlier operating systems or is the current system built upon previous systems? (Which I tend to think is the case.)

So to rephrase your new supposition, you believe that Apple keeps around a previous release unnecessarily, and also never documents and never provides a means to remove these arbitrarily preserved old macOS releases should storage approach capacity. Unfortunately for your storage budget, that’s not the case. Apple cleans up the old macOS stuff.

Barring some runaway app or some overflow log somewhere (booting through Safe Mode can sometimes clear that), you’ve too much stuff for too little storage. Your choices here are to delete or to offload more stuff, or to upgrade storage should the particular unspecified Mac here permit that upgrade and not all do, or to replace the Mac with one featuring more storage.

FWIW: the answer you selected as correct will only temporarily resolve what you were asking about, but those apps or other apps will return to the Dock as you cycle through your normal app usage. Follow the link I provided for using the Dock to cystomize what is displayed.

You are welcome!