PURIFY • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Purify

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/pjˈʊrəfˌaɪ/ Listen

verb

Purify v. t. (past & past part. purified; pres. part. purifying)

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.

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."

(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." "Purify both yourselves and your captives."

(c)

To free from improprieties or barbarisms; as, to purify a language.

Purify v. i. To grow or become pure or clear.

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Etymology of 'Purify'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Purify" Quotes from Famous Books

... this fatal disease. But the ordinary quarantine regulations will afford no protection in such a case. A few weeks' delay in quarantine after the crew have become acclimated, and fumigations, and sprinklings with acids in the cabin, until all hands are pickled or smoke-dried, will not purify the ship's hold, prevent the exhalation of pestilential gases, and arrest the progress ...

— Jack in the Forecastle • John Sherburne Sleeper

... understand your nature perfectly. It is full of enthusiasm and zeal for righteousness,— your heart warms to the sorrows of the human race,—you would lift up the whole world to God's footstool; you would console—you would be a benefactor—you would elevate, purify, rejuvenate, inspire! Yes! This is a grand mood—one which has fired many a would-be reformer before you,—but you forget! It is not the Church against which you should arm yourself—it is the human race! It is not one or many religious systems with which ...

— The Master-Christian • Marie Corelli

... the maintenance of numerous domestic fires, would restore it to its ancient healthfulness. [Footnote: Macchiavelli advised the Government of Tuscany "to provide that men should restore the wholesomeness of the soil by cultivation, and purify the air by fires."—Salvagnoli, Memorie, p. 111.] In accordance with these views, settlers were invited from various parts of Italy, from Greece, and, after the accession of the Lorraine princes, from that country also, and colonized ...

— The Earth as Modified by Human Action • George P. Marsh

... for the lower life, were it the fairest, is derogation; and Har and Heva before they may enter into their kingdom of the flowers must first be fallen spirits. But continually in the interludes of human endeavour to rebathe the mind at these clear wells does indeed exceedingly purify and strengthen against the returning and imminent encounter. Those long retreats at Walden may not often be repeated, for man is either risen too high or too far fallen to live well in the sole company of animals and flowers. What sociologists call the consciousness ...

— Apologia Diffidentis • W. Compton Leith

... It was unreasonable to request the Hollanders to abandon their religion or their country. The reproach of heresy was unjust, for they still held to the Catholic Apostolic Church, wishing only to purify, it of its abuses. Moreover, it was certainly more cruel to expel a whole population than to dismiss three or four thousand Spaniards who for seven long years had been eating their fill at the expense of the provinces. It would be impossible for ...

— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

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