PURIFY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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

... continues to enchain the minds of the people, despite the differentiation established between the higher and the secondary powers, and despite the high point of development reached by the schoolmen in their attempts to systematize and, in a measure, to purify the ancient beliefs. ...

— The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria • Morris Jastrow

... is at this time imposed upon those who direct our affairs is to educate the democracy; to warm its faith, if that be possible; to purify its morals; to direct its energies; to substitute a knowledge of business for its inexperience, and an acquaintance with its true interests for its blind propensities; to adapt its government to time and place, and to modify it in compliance with the occurrences ...

— American Institutions and Their Influence • Alexis de Tocqueville et al

... cast dirt upon the statue of their divinity, then dragged her as defiled from her lofty pedestal, and left her lying dishonoured at its foot! Instead of feeding with holy oil the lamp of the higher instinct, which would glorify and purify the lower, they feed the fire of the lower with vile fuel, which sends up its stinging smoke to becloud ...

— Wilfrid Cumbermede • George MacDonald

... destroyed the unity of the Catholic Church. Though he was merciless to papal abuses, it had not been in the mind of the zealous Dominican to protest against the doctrines of the Papacy, nor did he ever doubt the faith which had drawn him to the convent. He had no wish to destroy—his work was to purify. But his death proved that purification was impossible. Rome had gone too far on the downward path to be checked by a Reformer. She had come at last to the parting ...

— Heroes of Modern Europe • Alice Birkhead

... auricular confession. Formulize these feelings and we have the dogmas of "original sin," and of "spiritual regeneration." The order of baptism among the Aztecs commenced, "O child, receive the water of the Lord of the world, which is our life; it is to wash and to purify; may these drops remove the sin which was given to thee before the creation of the world, since all of us are under its power;" and concluded, "Now he liveth anew and is born anew, now is he purified and cleansed, now our mother the ...

— The Myths of the New World - A Treatise on the Symbolism and Mythology of the Red Race of America • Daniel G. Brinton

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