expunge
Americanverb (used with object)
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to strike or blot out; erase; obliterate.
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to efface; wipe out or destroy.
verb
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to delete or erase; blot out; obliterate
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to wipe out or destroy
Usage
What does expunge mean? 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.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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expungesimple
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expungessimple
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have expungedperfect
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has expungedperfect
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am expungingprogressive
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are expungingprogressive
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is expungingprogressive
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have been expungingperfect progressive
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has been expungingperfect progressive
Past
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expungedsimple
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had expungedperfect
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was expungingprogressive
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were expungingprogressive
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had been expungingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of expunge
1595–1605; < Latin expungere to blot out, erase, equivalent to ex- ex- 1 + pungere to prick
Explanation
To expunge is to cross out or eliminate. After Nicholas proved he had been in school on the day in question, the absence was expunged from his record. Expunge is often something you do to a document. When government censors block out text in documents before making them public, they are expunging the text. You can also use the word in a more metaphorical sense. The principal tried to expunge all traces of bullying from the school by implementing a kindness initiative and treating all complaints as serious.
Vocabulary lists containing expunge
300 Most Difficult "SAT" Words
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To Kill a Mockingbird
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"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, Chapters 16–19
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He disclaims any effort to reverse or expunge the old case.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
In 2020, Newsom signed a bill allowing formerly incarcerated firefighters who were convicted of nonviolent, nonsexual offenses to appeal a court to expunge their criminal records and waive their parole time.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2025
As such, it was their mission to expunge such art from the public memory.
From Salon ● Jun. 8, 2025
That was no accident; local leaders saw the new interstate system as a golden opportunity to expunge “blight,” which they claimed acted as a barrier to development.
From Slate ● Aug. 28, 2024
When the Spanish governor tried to recruit the Hopi to live in missions, their leaders told him not to bother: the epidemic soon would expunge them from the earth.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Traces of red just happened to come out with the nurse’s sweat because “the human body is inherently leaky,” Everts writes, “not because sweat is the way your body intentionally expunges toxins.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 21, 2021
It neither expunges his record nor declares that the law that condemned him was unjust in the first place.
From Slate ● Jan. 24, 2020
It also expunges isolated misdemeanors once a petition has been filed with the State Bureau of Investigation.
From Washington Times ● Dec. 30, 2019
Cook expunges all memory of his nearly-but-not-quite getting out the previous over with a Michelin-starred cover drive for four.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 23, 2015
It promotes union and harmony, expunges all selfishness, allays petulant feelings and turbulent passions, destroys peevishness of temper, and makes home-intercourse holy and delightful.
From The Christian Home by Philips, Samuel
So there is no clear legal definition of who belongs on these rosters, let alone guidance on how long officers must remain on these lists or how they can seek to have their names expunged.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 11, 2025
Even after Friday’s selloff, that indicator remains high, indicating “speculation hasn’t been expunged from the market,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 14, 2025
Like Kardashian, he noted that they are eligible to have their criminal records expunged.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 13, 2025
They write between the lines, telling stories that some would prefer to see expunged from the public record.
From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2024
She felt obliterated, expunged from the room, and was relieved.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
Still, together, Russia and Iran are responsible for over 11% of the world’s oil production, meaning that expunging them from the global oil trade would be challenging.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 22, 2026
In addition to creating a pipeline for these workers, it would also start a pathway for expunging the criminal records of those who have successfully completed probation and reentry.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2025
Texas Instruments said in April it expected overstocked customers to continue expunging excess inventory even in the second quarter.
From Reuters ● Jul. 25, 2023
She has left the assassination business and joined a church, where she applies her screwball energy and guileless vanity to the job of being baptized and expunging her sins.
From New York Times ● Feb. 24, 2022
Capitalizing on Mantell’s enfeebled state, Owen set about systematically expunging Mantell’s contributions from the record, renaming species that Mantell had named years before and claiming credit for their discovery for himself.
From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
