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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.
Examples of expunge in a Sentence
Michael R. Wickline, Arkansas Online, 17 Apr. 2025
Trump fired the archivist of the United States and expunged the boards of visitors of every service academy.
—Varad Mehta, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 7 Mar. 2025
The complaint asks for equitable relief from suspending, assigning or disciplining Castro for hanging the crucifix, for her to be fully reinstated without conditions regarding the crucifix and to expunge all disciplinary records concerning the refusal to remove the crucifix.
—Natalie Demaree, Miami Herald, 7 Feb. 2025
The Senate’s initial 15-18 vote on the bill fell three votes short of the 18 required for approval before that vote was expunged.
—Michael R. Wickline, Arkansas Online, 17 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for expunge
Cite this Entry
“Expunge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expunge. Accessed 21 May. 2025.
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expunge
transitive verb
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