Adjacent Words

Purify definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PU'RIFY, v.t. [L. purifico; purus, pure, and facio, to make.]
1. To make pure or clear; to free from extraneous admixture; as, to purify liquors or metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air.
2. To free from pollution ceremonially; to remove whatever renders unclean and unfit for sacred services.
Purify yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day purify all your raiment. Numbers 31.
3. To free from guilt or the defilement of sin; as, to purify the heart.
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Titus 2.
4. To clear form improprieties or barbarisms; as, to purify a language.
PU'RIFY, v.i. To grow or become pure or clear. Liquors will gradually purify.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation; "purify the water" [syn: purify, sublimate, make pure, distill]
2: make pure or free from sin or guilt; "he left the monastery purified" [syn: purify, purge, sanctify]
3: become clean or pure or free of guilt and sin; "The hippies came to the ashram in order to purify"

Merriam Webster's

verb (-fied; -fying) Etymology: Middle English purifien, from Anglo-French purifier, from Latin purificare, from Latin purus + -ificare -ify Date: 14th century transitive verb to make pure: as a. to clear from material defilement or imperfection b. to free from guilt or moral or ceremonial blemish c. to free from undesirable elements intransitive verb to grow or become pure or clean • purifier noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. (-ies, -ied) 1 (often foll. by of, from) cleanse or make pure. 2 make ceremonially clean. 3 clear of extraneous elements. Derivatives: purification n. purificatory adj. purifier n. Etymology: ME f. OF purifier f. L purificare (as PURE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

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.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Purify Pu"ri*fy, v. i. To grow or become pure or clear.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(purifies, purifying, purified) If you purify a substance, you make it pure by removing any harmful, dirty, or inferior substances from it. I take wheat and yeast tablets daily to purify the blood... Only purified water is used. ? contaminate VERB: V n, V-ed • purification ...a water purification plant.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Clear, clean, cleanse, purge, free from impurity, make pure. 2. Defecate (as liquors), clarify, fine.

Moby Thesaurus

abate, abrade, absolve, abstract, acquit, atone, bate, beatify, bleach, bless, bolt, bowdlerize, canonize, chasten, clarify, clean, clean out, clean up, cleanse, clear, clear out, consecrate, curtail, decontaminate, decrassify, decrease, dedicate, deduct, delouse, depreciate, depurate, derogate, deterge, detract, devote, diminish, disinfect, disparage, distill, drain, dry-clean, dust, dust off, eat away, edulcorate, elute, enshrine, erode, essentialize, exalt, exculpate, excuse, exonerate, expiate, expurgate, extract, file away, filter, filtrate, forgive, freshen, fumigate, glorify, hallow, impair, leach, lessen, lixiviate, lustrate, narrow, oversimplify, pardon, percolate, purge, rectify, redeem, reduce, reduce to elements, refine, reform, remit, remove, restrain, retrench, rub away, saint, sanctify, sanitize, scavenge, screen, separate, set apart, shorten, shrive, sieve, sift, simplify, spiritualize, spruce, steam-clean, strain, streamline, strip down, subduct, sublimate, sublime, subtract, sweep out, sweeten, take away, take from, thin, thin out, tidy, try, wash, wear away, weed, whiten, winnow, wipe, wipe off, wipe out, wipe up, withdraw