Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of purging or cleansing, or the state of being purged or cleansed; a cleansing; purification from anything obnoxious, offensive, or erroneous; specifically, the removal, as in an edition of a book, of what is offensive from the point of view of morals or religion.
  • noun In astronomy, the emerging of the sun or moon from eclipse, beginning with the cessation of the total or annular phase (or with the middle of the eclipse if this is partial) and ending with the cessation of the partial phase. See eclipse.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of expurgating, purging, or cleansing; purification from anything noxious, offensive, sinful, or erroneous.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of expurgating, purging, or cleansing; purification from anything noxious, offensive, sinful, or erroneous.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the deletion of objectionable parts from a literary work

Etymologies

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Examples

  • For example, if you’re asked if you’ve ever been convicted, when do you still have to say “yes” (because it * did* happen), and when can you answer no since the expurgation is supposed to let you pretend it never happened?

    The Volokh Conspiracy » “Down the Memory Hole” Speech Restrictions, Supported by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) 2010

  • For example, if you’re asked if you’ve ever been convicted, when do you still have to say “yes” (because it * did* happen), and when can you answer no since the expurgation is supposed to let you pretend it never happened?

    The Volokh Conspiracy » “Down the Memory Hole” Speech Restrictions, Supported by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) 2010

  • Suzman says the letter in the novel is an expurgation of how he wished he could have been with his mother.

    The Saturday interview: Janet Suzman 2011

  • Upon a closer investigation, however, it became evident that the task of expurgation would prove to be a most formidable one, and that a great mass of extraneous matter would require to be inserted in explanation of motives which were wholly personal and therefore to be omitted from the book.

    Movie Night 2010

  • Certainly I think that no one is contemplating chemically "bowdlerizing" positive recollections, the talk seems to center around the artificial expurgation of bad memory, viz. trauma and the like.

    Lionel: We Are Our Memories 2009

  • Believe me, the secret traitor will not dare to absent himself from an expurgation so solemn, lest his very absence should be matter of suspicion.

    The Talisman 2008

  • The evidence of the Duke of Rothsay in expurgation, as it was termed, of

    The Fair Maid of Perth 2008

  • On the other hand, Atrios explaining "Why We Say 'F***' a Lot" (expurgation most definitely not in the original) fares far less well at Wood's hands.

    Angry, uncivil liberal bloggers 2007

  • The Colonel decided to continue without expurgation.

    Soul Learner_Tobsha 2006

  • This doctrine, then, of the expurgation of the intellect to qualify it for dealing with truth is comprised in three refutations: the refutation of the philosophies; the refutation of the demonstrations; and the refutation of the natural human reason.

    The Great Instauration 2005

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