expurgate

American  

[ek-sper-geyt] / ˈɛk spərˌgeɪt /

verb (used with object)

expurgated, expurgating

1. to amend by removing words, passages, etc., deemed offensive or objectionable.

   Most children read an expurgated version of Grimms' fairy tales.

   Synonyms:

   bowdlerize, purge, censor, excise, delete

2. to purge or cleanse of moral offensiveness.

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expurgate British  

/ ɛksˈpɜːɡətərɪ, ˈɛkspəˌɡeɪt, ɛkˌspɜːɡəˈtɔːrɪəl, -trɪ /

verb

1. (tr) to amend (a book, text, etc) by removing (obscene or offensive sections)

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expurgate Cultural  

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

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Other Word Forms

• expurgation noun
• expurgator noun
• expurgatory adjective
• unexpurgated adjective

Etymology

Origin of expurgate

1615–25; < Latin expurgātus, past participle of expurgāre to clean out. See ex- ¹, purge, -ate ¹

Explanation

To expurgate is to censor. Usually, people talk about expurgating bad words from something written or on TV. On TV, if you hear some words bleeped out, those words have been expurgated. In print, we can expurgate by using dashes ( — — ) or random characters like %&$#. Sometimes we can expurgate just by rewriting something so that the entire sentence with the naughty parts is gone, or by putting it into mild words. When it comes to things children read or watch, there's often the difficult question of what to expurgate and what to leave alone.

Example Sentences

We lose a critical piece of our cultural knowledge – and our ability to recognize who we were so we can actually change – when we expurgate anything tricky or objectionable from the record.

From The Guardian • Feb. 11, 2018

In fact, there had been nothing to expurgate.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 29, 2014

In some cases it might also be a paranoia that they want to expurgate in some way.”

From New York Times • Jan. 27, 2012

It seemed unfair to burden Riyadh with the legacy of its most notorious son � especially since the city wants so badly to expurgate him from its self-image.

From Time Magazine Archive

Every time one of his children made a sound that was recognizably southern, Bull would expurgate that sound from his child’s tongue on the spot.

From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy