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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.
Synonyms
Examples of expunge in a Sentence
David Nakamura, Washington Post, 19 June 2024
Perhaps because Maryland has taken past steps in this direction, including allowing individuals convicted of cannabis-specific crimes to seek to have their criminal records expunged (including felony charges in some cases).
—Baltimore Sun Editorial Board, Baltimore Sun, 18 June 2024
Christie encouraged him to email the Marion County Prosecutor's Office about getting his records expunged, but King had little hope that anyone in the judicial process would be on his side.
—Jade Jackson, The Indianapolis Star, 17 June 2024
Trump’s draconian legacy on immigration will be hard to expunge.
—Steven Dudley, Foreign Affairs, 10 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for expunge 
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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Cite this Entry
“Expunge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/expunge. Accessed 25 Jun. 2024.
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expunge
transitive verb
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