[f. L. expurgāt- ppl. stem of expurgāre, f. ex- (see EX- pref.1) + purgāre to make clean.]
† 1. trans. To purge or clear out (something excremental). Also absol. Obs.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. i. II. iv. That watery matter the two kidnies expurgate.
1652. Wordsworth, Chocolate, Introd. Verses. For though that water Expurgate ’Tis but the dregs of Chocolate.
2. a. To purify or amend (a book, etc.) by removing what is thought objectionable. b. To purge, make pure (rare). Also absol.
a. 1678. T. Jones, Rome no Mother Ch., 64. The Church of Rome by any means, who hath so much cracked her credit by legending, forgeing, expurgating, &c.
1819. Byron, Juan, I. xliv. Juan was taught from out the best edition Expurgated by learned men.
1846. Hawthorne, Mosses, II. vii. 117. Carefully corrected, expurgated and amended.
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., i. 209. The collection [of Sound-Words] would afford the practical means of expurgating itself.
1873. Symonds, Grk. Poets, xi. 344. His principal object was to expurgate it from impurities.
b. 1845–6. Trench, Huls. Lect., Ser. II. viii. 285, note. It is Christianity … which has really expurgated … literature.
3. To expunge as objectionable.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxx. (1856), 257. I copy them from my scrap-book, expurgating only a little.
Hence Expurgated ppl. a.
1831. Macaulay, Johnson, Ess. (1851), I. 174. What man of taste … can endure … abridgements, expurgated editions?
1872. O. W. Holmes, Poet Breakf.-t., i. 17. A kind of expurgated, reduced and Americanized copy of Voltaire.
