expurgate
to amend by removing words, passages, etc., deemed offensive or objectionable: Most children read an expurgated version of Grimms' fairy tales.
to purge or cleanse of moral offensiveness.
Origin of expurgate
1Other words for expurgate
Other words from expurgate
- ex·pur·ga·tion, noun
- ex·pur·ga·tor, noun
- un·ex·pur·gat·ed, adjective
Words Nearby expurgate
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use expurgate in a sentence
The resolutions of the loyalists were curiosities, and the secretary did not always expurgate bad spelling, etc.
Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama | Walter L. FlemingWhy must Northern publishers expurgate and emasculate the literature of the world before it is permitted to reach them?
The dreamer sees a worshipper—his wife—enter, to palliate or expurgate her soul of some ugly stain.
The Browning Cyclopdia | Edward BerdoeHis speech was two or three words longer, but they are inappropriate at the end of a chapter, and I expurgate.
The Cavalier | George Washington CableThey would expurgate it from their vocabulary if they could.
'Boy Wanted' | Nixon Waterman
British Dictionary definitions for expurgate
/ (ˈɛkspəˌɡeɪt) /
(tr) to amend (a book, text, etc) by removing (obscene or offensive sections)
Origin of expurgate
1Derived forms of expurgate
- expurgation, noun
- expurgator, noun
- expurgatory (ɛksˈpɜːɡətərɪ, -trɪ) or expurgatorial (ɛkˌspɜːɡəˈtɔːrɪəl), adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for expurgate
[ (ek-spuhr-gayt) ]
To clean up, remove impurities. An expurgated edition of a book has had offensive words or descriptions changed or removed.
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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