▪ I. expurgate, ppl. a. rare.
(ˈɛkspɜːgeɪt)
[ad. L. expurgāt-us, pa. pple. of expurgāre: see next.]
= expurgated.
| 1833 H. Coleridge North. Worthies i. 19 An expurgate liturgy. |
▪ II. expurgate, v.
(ˈɛkspɜːgeɪt, ɛkˈspɜːgeɪt)
[f. L. expurgāt- ppl. stem of expurgāre, f. ex- (see ex- prefix1) + purgāre to make clean.]
† 1. trans. To purge or clear out (something excremental). Also absol. Obs.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. i. ii. iv, That watery matter the two kidnies expurgate. 1652 Wordsworth Chocolate Introd. Verses, For though that water Expurgate 'Tis but the dregs of Chocolate. |
2. a. To purify or amend (a book, etc.) by removing what is thought objectionable. b. To purge, make pure (rare). Also absol.
| a. 1678 T. Jones Rome no Mother Ch. 64 The Church of Rome..hath..cracked her credit by..forgeing, expurgating, etc. 1819 Byron Juan i. xliv, Juan was taught from out the best edition Expurgated by learned men. 1846 Hawthorne Mosses ii. vii. 117 Carefully corrected, expurgated and amended. 1871 Tylor Prim. Cult. i. 209 The collection [of Sound-Words] would afford the practical means of expurgating itself. 1873 Symonds Grk. Poets xi. 344 His principal object was to expurgate it from impurities. |
| b. 1845–6 Trench Huls. Lect. Ser. ii. viii. 285 note, It is Christianity..which has really expurgated..literature. |
3. To expunge as objectionable.
| 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxx. (1856) 257, I copy them from my scrap-book, expurgating only a little. |
Hence ˈexpurgated ppl. a.
| 1831 Macaulay Johnson Ess. (1851) I. 174 What man of taste..can endure..abridgements, expurgated editions? 1872 O. W. Holmes Poet Breakf.-t. i. 17 A kind of expurgated..copy of Voltaire. |