expletive deleted
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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 “”.
Pronunciation
Noun
expletive deleted (plural expletives deleted)
- (euphemistic, humorous) An all-purpose profanity.
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
- (rare, euphemistic, humorous) To have sex with.
- 1993, Steve Allen, Make ’em laugh, Prometheus Books, page 293:
- I’d like to expletive deleted you.
Oh, expletive, that’s what I’d like to do.