Expunge, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Expunged();p. pr. & vb. n. Expunging().]
Etymology: [L. expungere, expunctum, prick out, expunge, settle an account, execute; ex out + pungere to prick, puncture. See Pungent.]
1. To blot out, as with pen; to rub out; to efface designedly; to obliterate; to strike out wholly; as, to expunge words, lines, or sentences.
2. To strike out; to wipe out or destroy; to annihilate; as, to expugne an offense. Sandys. Expugne the whole, or lop th' excrescent parts. Pope.
Syn. -- To efface; erase; obliterate; strike out; destroy; annihilate; cancel.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for expunge; he lists it under cancel.
Where he writes about it:
Cancel, efface, erase, expunge, and obliterate have as their first meaning the removal of written characters or other forms of record. — from cancel
To cancel is, literally, to make a lattice by cross-lines, exactly our English cross out; to efface is to rub off, smooth away the face, as of an inscription; to erase is to scratch out, commonly for the purpose of writing something else in the same space; to expunge, is to punch out with some sharp instrument, so as to show that the words are no longer part of the writing; to obliterate is to cover over or remove, as a letter, as was done by reversing the Roman stylus, and rubbing out with the rounded end what had been written with the point on the waxen tablet. — from cancel