expurgate - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

ex·pur·gate

Audio Help [ek-sper-geyt] Pronunciation Key

–verb (used with object), -gat·ed, -gat·ing.

1.	to amend by removing words, passages, etc., deemed offensive or objectionable: Most children read an expurgated version of Grimms' fairy tales.

2.	to purge or cleanse of moral offensiveness.

[Origin: 1615–25; < L expurgātus, ptp. of expurgāre to clean out. See ex-¹, purge, -ate¹

]

—Related forms

ex·pur·ga·tion, noun

ex·pur·ga·tor, noun

—Synonyms 1. delete, excise, censor, purge, bowdlerize.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
expurgate

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

ex·pur·gate Audio Help (ěk'spər-gāt') Pronunciation Key
tr.v. ex·pur·gat·ed, ex·pur·gat·ing, ex·pur·gates
To remove erroneous, vulgar, obscene, or otherwise objectionable material from (a book, for example) before publication.

[Latin expūrgāre, expūrgāt-, to purify : ex-, intensive pref.; see ex- + pūrgāre, to cleanse; see peuə- in Indo-European roots.]

ex'pur·ga'tion n., ex'pur·ga'tor n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

expurgate
verb
edit by omitting or modifying parts considered indelicate; "bowdlerize a novel" [syn: bowdlerize]

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
expurgate [(ek-spuhr-gayt)]

To clean up, remove impurities. An expurgated edition of a book has had offensive words or descriptions changed or removed.

[Chapter:] Conventions of Written English

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Expurgate

Ex"pur*gate\ (?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Expurgated; p. pr. & vb. n. Expurgating.] [L. expurgatus, p. p. of expurgare to purge, purify; ex out, from + purgare to cleanse, purify, purge. See Purge, and cf. Spurge.] To purify; to clear from anything noxious, offensive, or erroneous; to cleanse; to purge; as, to expurgate a book.

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