expletive deleted

Popularized in the U.S. after the Watergate scandal, during which transcripts of conversations were published with profanity replaced by “[EXPLETIVE DELETED]”.

expletive deleted (plural expletives deleted)

1. (euphemistic, humorous) an all-purpose profanity
   • 2013, J. David Markham and Mike Resnick, History Revisited: The Great Battles, Eminent Historians Take on the Great Works of Alternative History. BenBella Books, →ISBN, p. 41:

     Because you sold him out just to have a martyr, you expletive deleted.

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 and Jonathan Simon (eds.), Cultural Analysis, Cultural Studies, and the Law: Moving Beyond Legal Realism. Duke University Press, →ISBN, p. 90:

     You are paid a lot of money; kindly do some expletive-deleted work.

expletive deleted

1. (rare, euphemistic, humorous) To fuck, have sex with.
   • 1993, Steve Allen, Make ’em laugh, Prometheus Books, p. 293:

     I’d like to expletive deleted you.
     Oh, expletive, that’s what I’d like to do.