Expurgation has a long and questionable history. Perhaps history's most famous expurgator, or censor, was the English editor Thomas Bowdler, who in 1818 published the Family Shakespeare, an expurgated edition of Shakespeare's plays that omitted or changed any passages that, in Bowdler's opinion, couldn't decently be read aloud in a family. As a result, the term bowdlerize is now a synonym of expurgate.
They felt it was necessary to expurgate his letters before publishing them. the newspaper had to expurgate the expletive-laden speech that the criminal made upon being sentenced to life imprisonment
Recent Examples on the WebMr. Jang’s name has been expurgated from all official records in the North. Choe Sang-hun, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2016 The movie’s climactic punch line was repeatedly expurgated and reinstated during previews. J. Hoberman, New York Times, 7 Oct. 2016
Word History
Etymology
Latin expurgatus, past participle of expurgare, from ex- + purgare to purge