| 释义 |
expunge, v.|ɛkˈspʌndʒ|
[ad. L. expung-ĕre to mark for deletion (a name in a list) by points set above or below, f. ex- out + pungĕre to prick: see puncture, point.
The L. word was by the earlier Lat.-Eng. lexicographers taken to denote actual obliteration by pricking. The Eng. use is prob. influenced by phonetic association with sponge.]
1. trans. To strike out, blot out, erase, omit (a name or word from a list, a phrase or passage from a book or record).
1602W. Fulbecke 1st. Pt. Parall. 68 These words..were ordered by the Court to be expunged or blotted out. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ii. ii. §25 Some of after-Ages..purposely expunged the Year (..the Date of this Epitaph). 1711Addison Spect. No. 23 ⁋3 Having expunged the Passages which had given him offence. 1839Keightley Hist. Eng. II. 47 His office was expunged from the breviary. 1879M. Arnold Guide Eng. Lit. Mixed Ess. 184 It is a gain to shorten it by expunging anything superfluous.
2. fig. To wipe out, efface, annihilate, annul, destroy, put an end to.
1628Hobbes Thucyd. (1882) 13 Neither had there ever been so many cities expunged and made desolate. 1638G. Sandys Job 11 Wilt thou not..expunge th' offence? 1712Steele Spect. No. 432 ⁋9 Reflexions of this nature have expunged all Prejudice out of my Heart. 1817Chalmers Astron. Disc. v. (1852) 113 The infidel argument of astronomers goes to expunge a natural perfection from the character of God. 1871C. Davies Metr. Syst. ii. 42 We have expunged the yard, used in connection with the arm, more or less in every family.
3.
†a. To strike out the name of (a person) from a book or list. Obs. Hence
b. To get rid of, remove.
1616–61B. Holyday Persius 303 Would I might expunge this young rich ward. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. xi. ii. §89 The Court was moved to expunge those Witnesses, which made most against the King. 1875Manning Mission H. Ghost vii. 192 To expunge God from Science.
Hence exˈpunger, one who expunges, or seeks to expunge. exˈpunging vbl. n. and ppl. a.
c1611Chapman Iliad xvi. Comm. (1857) II. 104 Which is as poorly conceited of the expungers as the rest of the places in Homer that have groaned or laughed under their castigations. 1875N. Sargent Public Men I. 339 The expungers had the numbers. 1719Swift To Yng. Clergym., The many alterations, additions, and expungings made by great authors. 1834H. N. Coleridge Grk. Poets (ed. 2) 38 The..Iliad, amounting, after all curtailments and expungings, to upwards of 15,000 hexameter lines. 1846Worcester, Expunging, blotting out, effacing. |