DELETE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

DELETEAuthored

The Law Mind • 924 words

Definition

To erase, strike out, or remove written or printed matter from a document. In historical Scots law specifically, the term designated the act of striking language from a legal instrument or record, rendering it inoperative or void. In modern legal usage, "delete" carries the same core meaning but has expanded significantly to encompass the removal of electronically stored information (ESI) — a context that has generated substantial procedural and evidentiary law of its own.

The act of deletion in a legal context can be either authorized (a legitimate amendment or redaction) or unauthorized (alteration, spoliation, or destruction of evidence), and the legal consequences differ sharply depending on which applies.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To remove, get rid of, or erase, especially written or printed material or data on a computer or other device; colloquially also used to mean to defeat, dominate, or kill.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To blot out; to erase; to expunge; to omit — used of written or printed text.

The ordinary and legal meanings are closely aligned at their core, but the common usage treats deletion as a straightforward, completed act. Legal usage does not. In law, what is "deleted" may not be gone — digital deletion in particular rarely destroys underlying data — and the act of deleting can itself be legally significant, giving rise to spoliation sanctions, adverse inference instructions, or obstruction liability. The casual equivalence of "deleted" with "gone" is precisely the trap courts and litigants repeatedly encounter.

Common Confusion

DELETE vs. EXPUNGE: Expungement is a formal legal remedy — typically requiring a court order — that seals or destroys records of an arrest or conviction. Deletion is a physical or mechanical act applicable to any document or data. A deleted record is not necessarily expunged, and an expunged record involves far more than mere deletion. The terms are not interchangeable and should not be treated as synonyms in research contexts.

DELETE vs. REDACT: Redaction removes or obscures specific content from a document while preserving the document itself, typically for privilege or privacy reasons. Deletion removes content entirely, or purports to. The distinction matters acutely in discovery and public records contexts.

Why It Matters in Research

The historical legal dictionaries treat "delete" as a narrow Scots law term — essentially a synonym for erasure of written matter in a document. Researchers using pre-twentieth-century sources will find the term's legal significance confined almost entirely to that context, and the entries are correspondingly thin. Do not rely on historical dictionary entries as a guide to modern doctrine.

The term's modern legal weight lies almost entirely in two areas that the historical sources cannot address: (1) document alteration and evidence law, and (2) digital information and e-discovery. In both contexts, the act of deletion is legally consequential regardless of whether the deletion "worked" in a technical sense. Courts applying spoliation doctrine frequently analyze whether deleted ESI was recoverable, when it was deleted relative to litigation hold obligations, and whether deletion was done with intent to deprive. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 37(e), directly governs the failure to preserve ESI, including through deletion, and authorizes sanctions up to and including case-terminating instructions.

Researchers tracing deletion in the context of document fraud or forgery should be attentive to the distinction between deletion and interlineation — historical sources discuss both, and the two acts carry different legal significance depending on when and how they occurred relative to execution of the instrument.

In criminal law, unauthorized deletion of records can constitute obstruction of justice, tampering with evidence, or destruction of government records under federal and state statutes. The act of deletion has also become central to privacy and data protection law, particularly in GDPR-influenced frameworks that recognize a "right to erasure" (sometimes called a "right to be forgotten") — a usage the classical dictionaries obviously do not reach.

Historical Dictionary Support

All three source dictionaries are in close agreement: "delete" in Scots law meant to erase or strike out, and the entries are brief to the point of minimal. Burrill adds the Latin root (delere, to strike out) and cites 1 How. St. Trials, 1381, but does not develop the term further as a distinct legal concept. The entries in both editions of Black's are nearly identical and equally spare.

What the historical sources collectively miss is substantial. They treat deletion as a physical act with no procedural or evidentiary dimension worth elaborating. The modern body of law surrounding deletion — particularly spoliation, litigation holds, and data privacy — has no footprint in these sources whatsoever. For research into Scots law practice or the law of document alteration in historical instruments, the historical entries provide adequate orientation. For any modern application, they are starting points only.

Jurisdictional Note

The Scots law usage is the term's historical legal home, but "delete" as a legal term of art in modern American and English practice is largely governed by procedural rules, evidentiary doctrine, and statutory frameworks that vary by jurisdiction. The right to erasure under GDPR applies in EU member states and affects entities doing business there; U.S. equivalents (such as California's CCPA) use similar but not identical frameworks and terminology.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Spoliation of Evidence; Electronically Stored Information (ESI); Redaction.

DELETEmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In Scotch law. strike out. To erase; to

DELETEmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

Sc. [from Lat. delere, to strike out.] In Scotch law. To erase; to strike out. 1 How. St. Trials, 1381. 2, art. 6, § 1.-Delegation is novation ef law. A discharging of ballast (lest,) from fected by the intervention of another son whom the debtor, in order to be liberated from his creditor, gives to such creditor, or to him whom the creditor appoints; and such person so given becomes obliged to the creditor in the place of the original debtor. Burge on Suretyship, 173. See Civ. Code of Louis. art. 2188. DELEGATUS, Delegata. Lat. [from delegare, q. v.] Delegated, deputed, commissioned; appointed to act for another as delegate, deputy, or agent. See infra. Transferred or assigned, as a power or authority. See infra. Delegatus non potest delegare. A delegate cannot delegate; an agent cannot delegate his functions to a sub-agent without the knowledge or consent of the principal: the person to whom an office or duty is delegated cannot lawfully devolve the duty on another, unless he be expressly authorized so to do. Broom's Max. 385, [666,] and notes. 9 Co. 77. 2 Steph. Com. 119, 120. 2 Kent's Com. 633. Jones' Law R. 45. The civil law maxim was Constat procuratorem alium procuratorem facere non posse. Dig. 19. 1. 4. 5. Story on Agency, § 13. See Vicarius. The term delegatus is applied by Bracton to the ancient justices in eyre, as possessing a delegated authority or jurisdiction from the king; and he remarks quod nullus justitiarius à domino rege sic delegatus poterit aliquem sibi subdelegare. Bract. fol. 108 b. See Cod. 3. 1. 5. This is probably the earliest application of the maxim in English law. See infra. Delegatus debitor est odiosus in lege. A delegated debtor is odious in law. 3 Bulstr. 148. Delegata potestas non potest delegari. A delegated power cannot be delegated [or re-delegated]. 2 Inst. 597. Branch's Princ. Broom's Max. 384, [665]. Story on Agency, § 13. See 11 Howard's R. 223. Bracton divides jurisdiction, or the power of judging, (potestas judicandi,) into ordinary, (ordinaria,) as that of the king, and delegated, (delegata,) as that of a justice appointed by him, (sicut justitiarius ab eo constitutus); and observes that a justice cannot substitute another justice in his place, (et non alius à justitiario substituendus, quia justitiarius justitiarium substituere non potest). Bract. fol. 333 b. See Fleta, lib. 2, c. 62, § 1.

DELETEmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

In Scotch law. To erase; to strike out.

DELETEv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To blot out; to erase; to expunge; to dele; to omit. I have, therefore, . . . inserted eleven stanzas which do not appear in Sir Walter Scott's version, and have deleted eight. Aytoun.

deleteverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

To remove, get rid of or erase, especially written or printed material, or data on a computer or other device. | To defeat or dominate. | To kill or murder.

deletenoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A deletion. | A remainder of a music or video release. | Alternative letter-case form of Delete. | The delete character (U+007F or %7F).

Deletenoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A key that may be pressed to delete something (such as text or files) from a computer. The key also erases text from left to right, unlike the backspace key.

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