expunge

verb

ex·​punge ik-ˈspənj 

expunged; expunging

transitive verb

1

: to strike out, obliterate, or mark for deletion

2

: to efface completely : destroy

3

: to eliminate from one's consciousness

expunge a memory

expunger noun

Did you know?

In medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, a series of dots was used to mark mistakes or to label material that should be deleted from a text, and those deletion dots can help you remember the history of expunge. They were known as puncta delentia. The puncta part of the name derives from the Latin verb pungere, which can be translated as "to prick or sting" (and you can imagine that a scribe may have felt stung when their mistakes were so punctuated in a manuscript). Pungere is also an ancestor of expunge, as well as a parent of other dotted, pointed, or stinging terms such as punctuate, compunction, poignant, puncture, and pungent.

Synonyms

• abolish
• annihilate
• black out
• blot out
• cancel
• clean (up)
• efface
• eradicate
• erase
• exterminate
• extirpate
• liquidate
• obliterate
• root (out)
• rub out
• snuff (out)
• stamp (out)
• sweep (away)
• wipe out

Examples of expunge in a Sentence

time and the weather have expunged any evidence that a thriving community once existed here

Recent Examples on the Web

According to the documents, obtained by CNN, Wallen pleaded guilty under a deferral, allowing for the charges to be expunged upon completing his sentence and probation. —Alli Rosenbloom, CNN, 12 Dec. 2024

Understanding Clean Slate Laws and Automatic Criminal Record Relief Clean slate laws seal or expunge certain criminal records after a specified period of time without reoffending. —Alonzo Martinez, Forbes, 6 Dec. 2024

While he was released in 2020, Cohen is unlikely to see his record expunged by the returning president in his second, nonconsecutive term because the former attorney testified against Trump in the former and incoming president’s New York state hush money trial. —John Scott Lewinski, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 29 Nov. 2024

But Hasina’s ouster both expunged his legal travails and presented a late career change as his tormentor’s successor. —Charlie Campbell, TIME, 21 Nov. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Latin expungere to mark for deletion by dots, from ex- + pungere to prick — more at pungent

First Known Use

1602, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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Kids Definition

expunge

verb

ex·​punge ik-ˈspənj 

expunged; expunging

: to blot or rub out : erase

expunger noun

Legal Definition

expunge

transitive verb

ex·​punge ik-ˈspənj 

expunged; expunging

: to cancel out or destroy completely

expunge the court records of an acquitted defendant

expungement noun