EXPUNGE

Definition

1 : to strike out, obliterate, or mark for deletion

2 : to efface completely : destroy
3 : to eliminate from one's consciousness

Did You Know?

In medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, a series of dots

was used to mark mistakes or to label material that should be
deleted from a text, and those deletion dots can help you
remember the history of expunge. They were known as puncta
delentia. The puncta part of the name derives from the Latin
verb pungere, which can be translated as "to prick or sting"
(and you can imagine that a scribe may have felt stung when
their mistakes were so punctuated in a
manuscript). Pungere is also an ancestor of expunge, as well
as a parent of other dotted, pointed, or stinging terms such
as punctuate, compunction, poignant, puncture, and pungent.
Examples

As part of the plea bargain, the defendant's record will

be expunged after 100 hours of community service.
"Now, court officials and prosecutors are bracing for a possible
flood of people seeking to expunge their criminal records
beginning Jan. 1 under a new law passed by the Legislature
and signed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham." — Colleen Heild
and Katy Barnitz, The Albuquerque Journal, 29 Dec. 2019