v. [ad. L. expung-ĕre to mark for deletion (a name in a list) by points set above or below, f. ex- out + pungĕre to prick: see PUNCTURE, POINT.
The L. word was by the earlier Lat.-Eng. lexicographers taken to denote actual obliteration by pricking. The Eng. use is prob. influenced by phonetic association with sponge.]
1. trans. To strike out, blot out, erase, omit (a name or word from a list, a phrase or passage from a book or record).
1601–2. Fulbecke, 1st Pt. Parall., 68 b. These words … were ordered by the Court to bee expunged, or blotted out.
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., II. ii. § 25. 67. Some of after-Ages … purposely expunged the Year (… the Date of this Epitaph).
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 23, ¶ 3. Having expunged the Passages which had given him offence.
1839. Keightley, Hist. Eng., II. 47. His [St. Thomas of Canterbury’s] office was expunged from the breviary.
1879. M. Arnold, Guide to Eng. Lit., Mixed Ess., 184. It is a gain to shorten it by expunging anything superfluous.
2. fig. To wipe out, efface, annihilate, annul, destroy, put an end to.
1628. Hobbes, Thucyd., 14. For neither had there euer bin so many Cities expunged, and made desolate.
1638. G. Sandys, Job, 11.
| Wilt thou not to a broken Heart dispense | |
| Thy Balme of mercy, and expunge th’offence, | |
| E’re dust returne to dust? |
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 432, ¶ 9. Reflexions of this nature have expunged all Prejudice out of my Heart.
1817. Chalmers, Astron. Disc., v. (1852), 113. The infidel argument of astronomers goes to expunge a natural perfection from the character of God.
1871. C. Davies, Metric Syst., II. 42. We have expunged the yard, used in connection with the arm, more or less in every family.
3. † a. To strike out the name of (a person) from a book or list. Obs. Hence b. To get rid of, remove.
1616–61. Holyday, Persius, 303.
| Or would I might expunge this young rich Ward, | |
| By whom from great possessions I am bar’d. |
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., XI. ii. § 89. 158. The Court was moved to expunge those Witnesses, which made most against the King.
1875. Manning, Mission H. Ghost, vii. 192. To expunge God from science.
Hence Expunger, one who expunges, or seeks to expunge. Expunging vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
c. 1611. Chapman, Iliad, XVI. Comm. (1857), II. 104. Which is as poorly conceited of the expungers as the rest of the places in Homer that have groaned or laughed under their castigations.
1875. N. Sargent, Public Men, I. 339. The expungers had the numbers.
1719. Swift, To Yng. Clergym. The many alterations, additions, and expungings made by great authors.
1834. H. N. Coleridge, Grk. Poets (ed. 2), 38. The … Iliad, amounting, after all curtailments and expungings, to upwards of 15,000 hexameter lines.
1846. Worcester, Expunging, blotting out, effacing.
