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
- expunction noun
- expunger noun
- unexpunged adjective
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.
He disclaims any effort to reverse or expunge the old case.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 23, 2026
As warmer spotlights go, “It’s Never Over, Jeff Buckley” may never fully expunge what maddens and mystifies about the untimely end of troubled souls.
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 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
The settlement requires Google to expunge billions of personal records stored in its data centers and make more prominent privacy disclosures about Chrome’s Incognito option when it is activated.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 1, 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
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.
