expletive deleted
English
Etymology
Attested since at least the 1930s, but popularized in the U.S. after the Watergate scandal, during which transcripts of conversations were published with profanity replaced by “[EXPLETIVE DELETED]”.
Noun
expletive deleted (plural expletives deleted)
Adjective
expletive deleted (not comparable)
- (euphemistic, humorous) An all-purpose profanity.
- 2003, Toby Miller, “What It Is and What It Isn’t: Cultural Studies Meets Graduate Student Labor”, in Austin Sarat, Jonathan Simon, editors, Cultural Analysis, Cultural Studies, and the Law: Moving Beyond Legal Realism, Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 90:
- You are paid a lot of money; kindly do some expletive-deleted work.
Verb
Synonyms
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