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Word of the Day Archive
Sunday September 10, 2000
expunge \ik-SPUNJ\, transitive verb:
1. To strike out, erase, or mark for deletion; to obliterate; as, "to expunge words, lines, or sentences."
2. To wipe out or destroy; to annihilate.
And when the Russian moon program was finally abandoned, the Kremlin spent considerable effort to expunge it from history.
-- Bill Keller, "Eclipsed", New York Times Magazine, June 27, 1999
Not only were new data added, but over the centuries old errors were expunged.
-- Stephen J. Pyne, How the Canyon Became Grand
All one wants for this exceptional woman is that she be granted 10,000 joys to expunge all the sorrows that have been her life's companion.
-- Penny Perrick, "A non-person's odyssey", Times (London), May 6, 2000
Expunge is from Latin expungere, "to prick out, to mark (with dots) for deletion," from ex-, "out of, from" + pungere, "to prick."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for expunge
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