expletive deleted

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English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

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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]”.

Pronunciation

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  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

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expletive deleted (plural expletives deleted)

  1. (euphemistic, humorous) An all-purpose profanity.
    • 2013, J. David Markham, Mike Resnick, History Revisited: The Great Battles, Eminent Historians Take on the Great Works of Alternative History, . BenBella Books, →ISBN, page 41:
      Because you sold him out just to have a martyr, you expletive deleted.

Adjective

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expletive deleted (not comparable)

  1. (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

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expletive deleted

  1. (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.

Synonyms

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