purchaser 
quires or purchases, < porcharier, pourchaxer, 
etc., acquire, purchase: see pureliase.'] If. An 
acquirer; a money-maker. 
So gret a purchasour was nowher noon. 
Chaucer, Gen. Prol. to 0. T., I. 318. 
2. Ono who obtains or acquires the property 
of anything by purchase; a buyer. Specifically, 
In law: (a) One who acquires property by the payment of 
a consideration. 
What supports and employs productive labour is the 
capital expended In setting it to work, and not the de- 
mand of purchasers (or the produce of the labour when 
completed. J. 5. Mill. 
(6) One who acquires or obtains by conquest or by deed 
of gift, or In any manner other than by inheritance or 
escheat. Thus, a devisee or a donee in a deed of gift is 
technically a purchaser. Bona-flde purchaser. See 
bona fine. First purchaser, in the law of inheritance, 
the one who flrst among the family acquired the estate, 
whether by gift, buying, or bequest, to which others have 
succeeded ; the earliest person in a line of descent. 
purchase-shears (per'clMs-8heTz),H. j>/. A very 
powerful form of shears, the cutters of which 
are rectangular steel bars inserted in grooves, 
so that they can be readily removed for sharp- 
ening or renewal. They have usually at the back of 
the blade a strong spring or backstay to hold the two edges 
In contact, and a stop to regulate the size of the pieces to 
be sheared otf. 
purcyt, . A Middle English form at pursy. 
purcyvauntet, A Middle English form of 
purnnil'HHt. 
purdah (per'dS), n. [A\aop<irdali , < Hind, par- 
(hi, a curtain, screen, privacy, Pers. pardu, a 
curtain.] In India, a curtain, (a) A curtain serv 
ing as a screen in an audience-hall or room of state. 
The guns are kept loaded inside the purdah at the hall- 
door. If. U. Russell, Diary In India, II. 103. 
(6) A curtain screening women of superior rank from the 
sight of men and from contact with strangers. 
The doctor is permitted to approach the pmrdah. and 
put the hand through a small aperture ... in order to 
feel the patient's pulse. 
Witttamtm, East India Vade Mecum, I. 13(1. 
((I'nleaud KurntU.) 
Hence (c) The kind of seclusion in which such women 
live, constituting a mark of rank. nl) The material of 
which the curtain is made ; especially, a fine kind of mat' 
ting, or a cotton cloth woven in white and blue stripes. 
purdahed (per'dild), a. [< purdah + -ed'*.] 
Screened by a purdah or curtain : said of a Mos- 
lem woman of rank. 
The hour is passed In lively dialogues with the several 
purdahe.d dames. 
Mrs. .I/.,/ All, Observations on Mussalmansof India. 
pure (pur), a. and . [< ME. purr, pur. < OF. 
(and F.) pur, m., pure, f., = Sp. Pg. It. puro, < 
L. piirus, clean, free from dirt or filth, hence 
free from extraneous matter, plain, unadorned, 
unwrought, unoccupied, also free from fault or 
taint, as speech or morals, in law free from con- 
ditions, unconditional; akin toputus, clear (see 
pute ), and to Skt. / pu, purify. Prom L. piirug 
are also tilt, purity, puritan, purify, deptirr, de- 
purate, etc.. purge, purgation, etc., expurgate, 
spurge, etc.] I. a. 1. Free from extraneous 
matter; separate from matter of another kind; 
free from mixture; unmixed; clear; especial- 
ly, free from matter that impairs or pollutes: 
said of physical substances. 
Lastly I saw an Arke of purest golde 
Upon a brazen pillour standing hie. 
Spenser, Ruines of Time, 1. 859. 
In pure white robes, 
Like very sanctity, she did approach 
My cabin. Shot., W. T., Hi. 3. 22. 
2. Bare; mere; sheer; absolute; very: as, it 
was done out of pure spite; a pure villain. 
And cum wlghtly therwith the weghes horn selfe, 
To a place that was playne on the pure ground. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), I. 4794. 
For the meschief and the meschannce amonges men of 
aodome 
Wei therw plente of payn and of pure sleuthe. 
Fieri Plowman (B), xiv. 76. 
The pure wyse of hire raevynge 
Shewede wel that men myghte in hire gesse 
Honor, estate, and womanly noblesse. 
Chaucer, Troilus, 1. 28T>. 
Alas, sir, we did it for pure need. 
Shot., 2 Hen. VI., it. 1. 157. 
And half his blood burst forth, and down he sank 
For Vtie pure pain, and wholly swoon'd away. 
Titinti*"it, Lancelot and Elaine. 
3f. Sole; only. 
More feruent in faith thl falle I dessyre, 
Ffor Patroclus, my pure felow. thounut vnto dethe. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7934. 
4f. Whole; thorough; complete. 
Ac hor nother, as me may ise. in pur righte na. 
Rob. of Gloucester, I 174. 
And Paris, that is prinsipall of our pure hate, 
Iff hit happe vs to hent. hongit shalbe 
As a felon falsest foundyn w ith theft*. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. S6S4. 
305 
4853 
5f. Fine; nice. 
Venus the worthy, that wemen ay plesyn ; 
And Palades, with pure wit that passes all other ; 
And Jono, a lustls of ioyes In erthe. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 2S4. 
Nay, I confess I was quiet enough, till my Husband told 
me what pure Lives the London Ijulles live abroad, with 
their Dam-Ing, Meetings, and Junquetings. 
Wycherley, Country Wife, HL 1. 
You are a pure Fellow for a Father. This Is always your 
Tricks, to make a great Fool of one before Company. 
Steelr, Tender Husband, L 1. 
6. Figuratively, free from mixture with things 
of another kind; homogeneous. 
Howsoeuer, In the time of El Isa or Dido, the Phwnicean 
or I'unike, which she carried into Africa, was pure Hebrew, 
as was also their letters. Purehas, Pilgrimage, p. 47. 
Although very much more modem In date, and con- 
sequently less pure in style, the ruins at Pollonarua are 
scarcely less Interesting than those of the northern capital 
to which it succeeded. 
J. Fergutton, Hist Indian Arch., p. 199. 
7. Free from mixture with that which contami- 
nates, staiiiH, defiles, or blemishes, (a) Free from 
moral defilement or guilt ; Innocent; guileless; spotless; 
chaste : applied to persons. 
Unto the pure all things are pure. Tit. I. 15. 
I have been made to Iwlleve a man of honour a villain, 
and the best and purest of creatures a false profligate. 
Scott, Kenlfworth, xxxlx. 
Who would against thine own eye-witness fain 
Have all men true and leal, all women pure. 
Tennyson, .Merlin anil Vivien. 
(b) Ritually or ceremonially clean ; unpolluted. 
All of them were pure, and killed the passover. 
Ezra vl. 20. 
(e) Free from that which vitiates, pollutes, or degrades; 
unadulterated: genuine; stainless; sincere: said of 
thoughts, actions, motives, etc. 
Pure religion, and undefiled. Jas. 1. 27. 
In their looks divine 
The Image of their glorious Maker shone, 
Truth, wisdom, sanctltude severe and pure. 
MOton, V. L., Iv. 293. 
A friendship as wann and as pure as any that ancient 
or modern history records. Macaulay. 
8. In music: (a) Of intervals, intonation, and 
harmony, mathematically correct or perfect: 
opposed to tempered, (b) Of tones, without dis- 
cordant quality, (c) Of style of composition or 
of a particular work, correct ; regular; finished. 
9. In metoiph., of the nature of form ; unma- 
teriate; in thc> Kantian terminology, not de- 
pending on experience; non-sensuous. Predl- 
cables of the pure understanding. See predicate. 
Pure act, algebra, apperception, being. See the 
nouns. Pure beauty, a Judgment of taste unmixed with 
other emotions. Kant. Pure body, the first and sim- 
plest form united to the first and simplest matter. Pure 
categorical, cognition, color, see the nouns. Pure 
concept of the understanding, a concept which ex- 
presses universally and adequately the formal objective 
condition of experience. Kant. Pure conversion, In 
logic, simple conversion. See eonrenUm, 2. Pure cul- 
ture, enunciation, equation, forest. See the nouns. 
Pure ethics, the science of the necessary moral laws of a 
free will. Pure harmony, see harmony, 2 (d). Pure 
hyperbola a hyperbola without cusp, node, or acnode. 
Pure intellect. See intellect, l. Pure Interval or In- 
tonation, In music, an Interval or Intonation mathemati- 
cally correct : opposed to tempered interval or intonation. 
Pure intuition, the pure form of sensibility, not de- 
rived from experience, and virtually preceding all actual 
intuition ; pure space and time. Pure knowledge (NL. 
cognitio pura\ knowledge unmixed with any sensuous 
element; with the Cartesians and Leibnitzians, that know- 
ledge in which there is no mixture of sensible Images, it 
being purely Intellectual. Using the term intellect leas 
precisely than the Aristotelians, the Cartesians found It ne- 
cessary to employ, In ordinary, for the sake of discrimina- 
tion, the expression pure intellect (L. intellectus puna) In 
contrast to sense and imagination. This phrase was, how- 
ever, borrowed from the schools, who again borrowed It, 
through the medium of St. Augustine, from the Plato- 
nists. Sir W. Hamilton, Reid, note A, 5, Supplemen- 
tary Dissertations. Pure logic, (n) See logic, (b) Logic 
based solely on a priori principles ; a canon of the under- 
standing and of the reason In reference to the formal ele- 
ment, Kant. Pure mathematics. See nuithrmatics. 
Pure natural science, the science of the a priori laws 
of nature, snch as "substance Is permanent," and "every 
event Is completely determined by causes." Kant. Pure 
obligation, in Scott law. See obligation. Pure power. 
See poiwrl. Pure proof, an a priori proof, drawing no- 
thing from experience. Pure proposition*, a non-modal 
proposition in which the predicate Is applied to the sub- 
ject without qualification. Pure reason. See reason^. 
Pure representation, a representation which con- 
tains no matter of experience. Kant. Pure scarlet. See 
scarlet. Pure syllogism, in the scholastic logic, a non- 
modal syllogism composed: of pure propositions: in the 
Kantian logic, one which involves no immediate inference : 
direct syllogism. Pure synthesis, one whose manifold 
Is given a priori. Kant. Pure truth, absolutely a priori 
truth. Pure villeinage. See rUleinaye. -The pure ego. 
See ego. = Svn. 7. Uncorrupted, incorrupt, unsullied, un- 
tainted, untarnished, unstained, clean, fair, unspotted, un- 
polluted, undeflled, immaculate, guiltless, holy. 
II. 11. 1. Purity. [Rare.] 
Here are snakes within the grass ; 
And you methinks. O Vivien, save ye fear 
The monkish manhood, and the mask of pure 
Worn by this court, can stir them till they sting. 
Tennyson, Merlin ami Vivien. 
purfle 
2. In tanning, a bate of dog's dung, used for 
counteracting the action of the lime on the 
skins in the process of uuhairing. 
There are about 30 lanyards, large and small, In Ber- 
mondsey, and these all have their regular Pure collectors 
from whom they obtain the article. 
Mai/hew, London Labour and London Poor, II. 168. 
pure (pur), adr. [< ME. pure, pur, < OF. pur 
(in the phrase a pur, purely, absolutely), = Pr. 
pur, quite, = It. pure, pur, however, neverthe- 
less, though, < L. pure, purely, plainly, simply, 
unconditionally, absolutely, < p*rus, pure, sim- 
ple, unconditional: sec pure, a. This adverb 
exists unrecognized in purbliwt.] Quite ; very ; 
absolutely; perfectly. [Now only prov. Eng.] 
Natheless there Is gode Londe In stun place: but It la 
pure lltllle, as men seyn. Mandriillr, Travels, p. 130. 
Codes pyne and bus passion it pure selde In my thouhte. 
Pien Plotnnan (C), Till. 20. 
His countess, a bouncing kind of lady-mayoress, lookt 
pure awkward amongst so much good company. 
Walpole, Letters, II. 297. 
pure (pur), r. t. ; pret. and pp. pared, ppr. pur- 
ing. [< ME. piiren, < OF. purer, < LL. purare, 
make pure, purify (by religious rites), \ L. pti- 
rim, pure: see pure, a.] 1. To purify; cleanse; 
refine. 
Alias ! that I hlhlghte 
Of pured gold a thousand pound of wighte 
Unto this jihilosophre. 
Chaucer, Franklin's Tale, L 832. 
If we had their peace and good will 
To mvne and fine, and metal for to pure, 
In wilde Irish might we finde the cure. 
llalcluyls Voyages, I. 199. 
If you be unclean, mistress, you may pure yourself. 
Muldlrton, Family of Love, iii. a 
Specifically 2. In tanning, to cleanse with a 
bato of dog's dung. 
They [calf-skins] arc then unhalred and fleshed In the 
usual manner, purrd with a bate of dog s dung. 
Wurlcshup Receipts, 2d ser., p. 306. 
puree (pii-ra'), H. [P., a thick soup or porridge 
prepared from vegetables : see jiorreij.'] A kind 
of broth or soup consisting of meat, fish, or 
vegetables boiled to a pulp, and passed through 
a sieve. The ordinary pea-soup is a familiar 
example. 
purely (pur'H), adr. [< ME. purely, purelicJie, 
piirli; < pure + -// 2 .] 1. Without admixture 
or blemisn ; in such n way or to such a degree 
as to be free from anything that is heterogene- 
ous or tends to impair. 2. Entirely; wholly; 
completely; thoroughly; absolutely; quite: 
as, the whole thing was purely accidental. 
Nener-more for no man mowe be dellnercd, 
N < pult out (of I prison but purli thourh jour help. 
William of Palertte (E. E. T. 8.), 1. 4219. 
And I will turn my hand npon thec, and purely purge 
away thy dross, and take away all thy tin. Isa. 1. 25. 
With these powers were combined others of a purely ju- 
dicial character. Prexott, Ferd. and Isa., 11. 9. 
3. Very; wonderfully; remarkably: as, purely 
well. '[ Obsolete or prov. Eng.] 
Purely Jealous I would have her. 
B. Junsnn, Poetaster, II. 1. 
He Is purely happy, because he knowes no mill, nor 
hath made meanes by slnne to bee acquainted with mis- 
ery. Sp. Karlf, Micro-cosmographle, A Childe. 
4. Innocently; without guilt or sin ; chastely, 
purely (pur'li), a. [An elliptical use of purely. 
adr."] Verv or wonderfully well ; having good 
health. [Prov. Eng.] 
So, Mr. Reynolds. If the ladles' prayers are of any avail, 
yon ought to be purely. 
Mist Edgevorth, Absentee, xvl. (fiarics.) 
" Lawk a' massey, Mr. Benjamin," cries a stout motherly 
woman in a red cloak, aa they enter the field, "be that 
you? Well I never! yon do look purely." 
T. Hughes, Tom Brown at Rugby, I. 2. 
pureness (pur'nes), n. The state or quality of 
being pure; purity, (a) An unmixed state; separa- 
tion or freedom from any heterogeneous or foreign matter : 
as, the pureneu of water or other liquor ; the purenest of a 
metal ; the punnets of air. (6) Freedom from improper 
words, phrases, or modes of speech : as, pureneu of style. 
(c) Freedom from moral turpitude or guilt; moral clean- 
ness ; Innocence. 
He was all purenest, and his outward part 
But represents the picture of his heart. 
Cmrley, Death of John Littleton. 
purfilet, r. and H. An obsolete form of purfle. 
purfle (per'fl), r. ; pret. and pp. purfied, ppr. 
purHing. [Early mod. E. also purlile.pourfiU; 
< ME. purflen, purfylen, < OF. pourfler, pot-filer, 
F. pourfiler, also parlilcr = It.projlare, embroi- 
der, border, < I,, pro, before, 4- flum, thread: 
see pro- and jWf 8 . and cf . profile, from the same 
ult. source. Hence, by contr.,;>Mr/3.] I. trans. 
1. To ornament or decorate with a wrought or 
flowered border; border. Specifically (a) To em- 
broider on the edge or margin. 
