Purifier to Purposive
Purifier
(Pu"ri*fi`er) n. One who, or that which, purifies or cleanses; a cleanser; a refiner.
Puriform
(Pu"ri*form) a. [L. pus, puris, pus + -form: cf. F. puriforme.] (Med.) In the form of pus.
Purify
(Pu"ri*fy) v. t. [imp. & p. p. Purified ; p. pr. & vb. n. Purifying ] [F. purifier, L. purificare;
purus pure + -ficare (in comp.) to make. See Pure, and -fy.]
1. To make pure or clear from material defilement, admixture, or imperfection; to free from extraneous or
noxious matter; as, to purify liquors or metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air.
2. Hence, in figurative uses: (a) To free from guilt or moral defilement; as, to purify the heart.
And fit them so
Purified to receive him pure.
Milton. (b) To free from ceremonial or legal defilement.
And Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar, . . . and purified the altar.
Lev. viii.
15.
Purify both yourselves and your captives.
Num. xxxi. 19. (c) To free from improprieties or barbarisms; as, to purify a language. Sprat.
Purify
(Pu"ri*fy), v. i. To grow or become pure or clear.
Purim
(||Pu"rim) n. [Heb. pur, pl. purim, a lot.] A Jewish festival, called also the Feast of Lots, instituted
to commemorate the deliverance of the Jews from the machinations of Haman. Esther ix. 26.
Purism
(Pur"ism) n. [Cf. F. purisme.] Rigid purity; the quality of being affectedly pure or nice, especially
in the choice of language; over-solicitude as to purity. "His political purism." De Quincey.
The English language, however, . . . had even already become too thoroughly and essentially a mixed
tongue for his doctrine of purism to be admitted to the letter.
Craik. Purist
(Pur"ist), n. [Cf. F. puriste.]
1. One who aims at excessive purity or nicety, esp. in the choice of language.
He [Fox] . . . purified vocabulary with a scrupulosity unknown to any purist.
Macaulay. 2. One who maintains that the New Testament was written in pure Greek. M. Stuart.
Puristic
(Pu*ris"tic Pu*ris"tic*al) a. Of or pertaining to purists or purism.
Puritan
(Pu"ri*tan) n. [From Purity.]
1. (Eccl. Hist.) One who, in the time of Queen Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts, opposed traditional
and formal usages, and advocated simpler forms of faith and worship than those established by law; —
originally, a term of reproach. The Puritans formed the bulk of the early population of New England.
The Puritans were afterward distinguished as Political Puritans, Doctrinal Puritans, and Puritans in
Discipline. Hume.
2. One who is scrupulous and strict in his religious life; — often used reproachfully or in contempt; one
who has overstrict notions.
She would make a puritan of the devil.
Shak.
