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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.
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Examples of expunge in a Sentence
Jeff Weiss, Spin, 21 Aug. 2023
And without these members, any attempt to expunge the impeachments would fail.
—Prem Thakker, The New Republic, 20 July 2023
We aren’t fully convinced the powerhouses in the Big Ten and SEC will expunge the second-tier football programs from their leagues when the next media contract cycle arrives.
—Jon Wilner | , oregonlive, 14 Aug. 2023
The charges were recently expunged, meaning court records of the incident were removed from state files.
—Emily Opilo, Baltimore Sun, 3 Aug. 2023
Still, legal and constitutional experts argue that expunging an impeachment is not something the Constitution allows.
—Mariana Alfaro and Marianna Sotomayor, Anchorage Daily News, 21 July 2023
Speaker McCarthy supports expunging Trump’s impeachments over Ukraine and Jan. 6.
—Laura Blasey, Los Angeles Times, 26 June 2023
Georgetown University Law Professor Jonathan Turley told Reuters the U.S. Constitution contains no provision for expunging impeachments.
—Miles J. Herszenhorn, USA TODAY, 23 June 2023
The Sun reviewed documents showing the pipe bomb charge was ordered to be expunged in March 2021.
—Emily Opilo, Baltimore Sun, 3 Aug. 2023
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These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'expunge.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Expunge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expunge. Accessed 25 Sep. 2023.
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expunge
transitive verb
More from Merriam-Webster on expunge
Nglish: Translation of expunge for Spanish Speakers
Britannica English: Translation of expunge for Arabic Speakers
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