Also 5 -acion. [ad L. expurgātiōn-em, n. of action f. expurgāre; see EXPURGATE. Cf. Fr. expurgation.]
† 1. The action of expurgating or cleansing from impurity (lit. and fig.); an instance of this. Obs.
c. 1420. Pallad. on Husb., IV. 942. Thaire [bees’] dwellyng places expu[r]gacion Of every filthe aboute Aprill Calende Wol have of right.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 31. Sorts ordained onely for the expurgation or cleansing of the principall.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., Pref. a vj a. Arts and Learning want this expurgation.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, I. II. ix. 258. A pure bodie; which puritie was attain’d by Expurgations, Washings, [etc.].
2. The removal from a book, etc., of that which is deemed objectionable; an instance of this.
1614. Bp. Hall, Epist., II. iii. 427. Nothing can argue guiltines so much, as vniust expurgations.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 53. This work will ask as many more officials, to make expurgations.
1694. Pepys, Lett., in Academy, 9 Aug. (1890), 110/3. Yor politicall as well as philologicall Expurgations.
1820. Southey, Lett. (1856), III. 199. Sewell’s History of the Quakers … has undergone a like expurgation.
1858. Gladstone, Homer, I. 70. It seems to invite expurgation in order to establish the consistency of its contents.
3. The action of purging from imputed guilt; clearing; exculpation; after L. expurgatio. arch.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxiii. The evidence of the Duke of Rothsay in expurgation, as it was termed, of Sir John.
4. The action of purging away (impurities, etc.); transf. the clearing out, removal (of objectionable members of a community).
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 183. The melancholly iuyce as being more myrie and impure, needes the more forcible expurgation.
1648. Bp. Hall, Serm., Rem. Wks. (1660), 190. The severe censure and expurgation of those whom the Psalmist … calls leavened persons.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., ¶ 244. A Cautery or Fontanell is not set to the expurgation of a malignant humour.
1839. G. P. R. James, Louis XIV., I. 448. The expurgation of all those members opposed to the Fronde, was advised.
1864. Sat. Rev., 31 Dec., 797/2. The embarrassments of the later months of the year have ended in the expurgation of weak speculators rather than in the discomfiture or downfall of substantial houses.
† 5. Astr. The re-appearance of the sun after an eclipse; emersion. Obs.
1730–6. in Bailey (folio).
1751. in Chambers, Cycl.
1862. Chambers’ Encycl., s.v. Eclipse, Emersion or expurgation is the time when the luminary begins to reappear.
