expunge

Expunge means to erase, delete, cross out, or destroy.

Expunge is especially used in the context of law, in which it means to remove an arrest or conviction from a person’s public criminal record.

A record that has been altered in this way can be described as expunged. The process of expunging can be called expungement or expunction.

Example: Many criminal justice reform advocates support the law, which would expand the range of offenses that could be expunged from criminal records.

The first records of the word expunge come from right around 1600. It comes from the Latin verb expungere, which means “to blot out” or “to erase.” The word expungere is a combination of ex-, meaning “out,” and pungere, “to prick.” It originally referred to how scribes marked a word in a manuscript for deletion.

Expunge is strongly associated with the practice of removing an arrest or conviction from a person’s permanent record. In some jurisdictions, an arrest may be expunged from a person’s record if they are not convicted. In some cases, a conviction may even be expunged from a person’s record after a certain amount of time has passed after their sentence is completed. Expunging such records means they will not be seen during employer background checks, for example (though a private record may still exist in law enforcement files). For people who have served their sentence, this gives them a better chance at overcoming some of the many obstacles that often prevent them from gaining employment, finding housing, and fully participating in other parts of life.

Expunge is most often used in the context of criminal records, but it can also be used generally. Still, it is often used in reference to erasing negative things, such as expunging events from history or expunging a bad experience from one’s memory.

What are some other forms related to expunge?

• expunged (past tense verb, adjective)
• expunger (noun)
• unexpunged (adjective)
• expungement (noun)
• expunction (noun)

What are some synonyms for expunge?

• erase
• remove
• delete
• blot out
• eliminate 

What are some words that share a root or word element with expunge? 

• puncture

What are some words that often get used in discussing expunge?

• record 
• criminal
• crime
• arrest
• conviction
• offense
• court
• judge
• prosecutor
• sentence
• victim

Expunge is most commonly used in the context of law and criminal records. It is usually used formally.

The General Assembly in Virginia is decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and has begun a process to expunge criminal records of the offense.

I applaud this legislation. We need to stop clogging up our courts and ruining lives over marijuana possession.

— John Lesinski (@johnforva) March 9, 2020

In Tulsa, police officers’ records of misconduct and excessive use of force are automatically expunged after one year.

That’s part of the @TulsaPolice union contract. https://t.co/Y33hw71i2M

— Code for Tulsa (@CodeForTulsa) June 21, 2020

I wish there were ways to expunge people from ur dating history

— KITTENS (@iamKITTENS) August 22, 2019

Is expunge used correctly in the following sentence?

I wish I could expunge those memories from my mind, but I fear they will haunt me forever.