purge 
2. Anything that purges; specifically, a medi- 
cine that evacuates (lie intestines; a cathartic. 
Pride's Purge, in h'ng. hint., a forcible redaction, De- 
cember 6th, 1(148, of the membership of the Long Parlia- 
ment, effected by troops under the command of Colonel 
Pride, who excluded all persons suspected of Royalist or 
Presbyterian sympathies. The diminished Parliament 
was known as the flump, and consisted of about (JO to SO 
members. 
purge-cock (perj'kok), . A purging-cock. 
When it becomes necessary to empty the receiver, use is 
made of a purge-cock. Set. Amtr. Supp. t p. 8897. 
purger (per'jer), . [< purge + -cr*.] 1. A 
person or thing that purges or cleanses. 
We shall be call'd puryers, and not murderers. 
Skat., J. ('., li. 1. 180. 
Faith is a great purger and purifier of the soul. 
Jer. Taylor, Works (ed. 1835). II. 2i 
2. A cathartic. 
It is of good use in physic if you can retain the purging 
vertue and take away the unpleasant taste of the punjer. 
Bacon, Nat. Hist., t 20. 
purgery (per'jer-i), a. ; pl.pwyertes (-iz). [= F. 
purgerie; en purge + fry.'} The part of a sugar- 
house where the sugar from the coolers is placed 
in hogsheads or in cones, and allowed to drain 
off its molasses or imperfectly crystallized cane- 
juice. K. H. Knight. 
purging (por'jing), n. [Verbal n. of purge, r.] 
1. Any purifying process. 2. A diarrhea or 
dysentery ; looseness of the bowels. 
purging-agaric (p6r'jing-ag'a-rik), . The 
white or " female" agaric, Polyporui offirinatix, 
a fungus growing upon the larch of the Old 
World. It is more or less employed in Europe 
as a cathartic. 
purging-cassia (per'jing-kash'ia), n. The 
plant < 'axsia fistula, or its fruit. See Cassia. 
purging-cock (per'jing-kok), . The mud-cock 
or discharge-valve of a steam-boiler. K. H. 
Knight. 
purging-flax (per'jing-flaks), . An Old World 
plant, I. in n in catharticum, a decoction of which 
is used as a cathartic and diuretic. 
purging-nut (per'jing-nut), H. See .latropha. 
purification (pu'vi-fl-kfi'snon), [< F. puri- 
fication = Sp. purification = Pg. puriftcacao = 
It. pwijfautone, < L. purification-), a purifying, 
< purijicare, pp. piirificatiift. make clean: see 
purify.'} 1. The act of purifying; the act of 
freeing from impurities, or from whatever is 
heterogeneous or foreign: as, the purification 
of liquors or of metals. 2. The act or process 
of cleansing ceremonially ; a ritual observance 
by which the person or thing subjected to it is 
cleansed from a ceremonial uncleanuess, as a 
symbol of a spiritual cleansing. Ceremonial puri- 
fication by washing or by other means was common to the 
Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, and other peoples, and is slill 
practised by the Mohammedans, Greeks, and Roman Cath- 
olics, as well as by Hindus and other Orientals. In the 
Jewish ceremonial law the use of water was essential to 
purification, and it was often accompanied by sacrifices. 
The purifications of the Mosaic law fall under several 
heads, among which are those for defilement arising 
from secretions, those for leprosy, those for pollution from 
corpses, and those for defilement from eating the flesh of 
certain animals. 
3. A cleansing of the soul from guilt ; the ex- 
tinguishment of evil desire as something which 
does not belong to the children of God. 
Water is the symbol of purification of the soul from sin. 
Jer. Taylor, Worthy Communicant, i. 3. 
4. Iii the ttoman Catholic and Anglican 
churches, the pouring of wine into the chalice 
to rinse it after communion, the wine being 
then drunk by the priest Purification of St. 
Mary the Virgin, feast observed in the Boman Catho- 
lic and some other liturgical churches on February 2d, in 
commemoration of the purification of the Virgin Mary, 
according to the Jewish ceremonial, forty days after the 
birth of Christ. Also called Candleman, ffypapante, Presen- 
tation of Christ in the Temple, and Purification of Our Lady. 
Tewysday, the ij Day of Februarii, that was the Purifi- 
caton of our lady, the wynde made well for us. 
Tortington, Diane of Eng. Travell, p. 61. 
purification-flower (pu'ri-fi-ka'shon-flou'er), 
n. The European snowdrop, SotefUMU nivalis, 
which blossoms at about the time of the feast 
of the Purification, when maidens in white for- 
merly walked in procession. Compare fair- 
in <t iils-f>f- Fel> r ><ari/. 
purificative (pu''ri-fi-ka-tiv), a. [< F. pnrifi- 
i-nlif = Pr. purificatiu = It. purificatiro, < L. 
purl tii-iin: pp. />nritif<t/u,f, purify, make clean: 
see purify.'} Having power to purify ; tending 
4855 
brant's fingers and month and the holy vessels 
after the ablutions. Before celebration and until the 
offertory, and after celebration, it covers the chalice, nd 
the paten rests on it covered by the pall and veil Also 
called mundatory. 
purificatory (pu'ri-fi-ka-to-ri), a. and n. [= F. 
pitrijieatmre = Sp. Pg. purificatorio = It. puri- 
ticutojo, n., < LL. purijicatorius, cleansing, < 
L. purijicare, pp. purificatus, make clean: see 
purify.] I. H. Purificative. Johnson. 
II. H. Same &s purificator. 
purifier (pu'ri-fi-er), . 1. One who or that 
which purifies or cleanses; a cleanser; a re- 
finer; specifically, a purificator. 
He shall sit as a refiner and punter of silver. 
Mai. Hi. X. 
2. In inilliiii/, an apparatus for separating bran- 
scales and flour from grits or middlings. Dry- 
lime purifier, wet-lime purifier. See gai-purifter. 
puriform (pu'ri-form), . [< L. pun (pur-), 
purifier = Sp. Pg. purificar = It. purijicare, < 
L. purijicare, make clean or pure,< jiuritx, clean, 
pure, + fitccre, make.] I. trans. 1. To make- 
pure or clear; free from contamination or ex- 
traneous admixture : as, to purify liquors or 
metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air. 
2. To make ceremonially clean ; cleanse or 
free from whatever pollutes or renders cere- 
monially unclean and unfit for sacred service. 
Whosoever hath killed any person, and whosoever hath 
touched any slain. purify both yourselves ami your captives 
on the thinl day, and on the seventh day. Num. xxxi. 19. 
3. To free from guilt, or the deti lenient of sin ; 
free from whatever is sinful, vile, or base. 
Who gave himself for us. that he might redeem us from 
all Iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, 
zealous of good works. Tit. 11. 14. 
Thy soul from all guilt will vie puri/y, 
And sure no heavy curse shall lie on thee. 
William Morrin, Earthly Paradise, III. OS. 
4. To elevate and free from barbarisms or in- 
elegances: as, to purify a language. 
II. in trans. To grow or become pure or clear. 
AV'e do not suppose the separation of these two liquors 
wholly finished before the purgation of the air began, 
though let them begin to purify at the same time. 
T. Burnet, Theory of the Earth. 
Purim (pu'rim), . [Heb.] An annual festi- 
val observed by the Jews on the 14th and 15th 
of the month Adar (about the 1st of March). 
It is preceded by the Fast of Esther on the 13th. These 
three days commemorate the deliverance of the Jews by- 
Esther from the massacre planned by Hainan, as related 
in the book of Esther. 
Wherefore they called these days Purim after the name 
of Pur. Esther ix. 26. 
purili (pij-re're), H. [Maori.] A New Zealand 
tree, f'itcjc littnralis, 50 or 60 feet high, with 
robust spreading branches. It yields a very hard, 
heavy, and durable timber, of a brown color, in short 
lengths, often curved, suitable for ships' frames and 
many other purposes. 
purism (pur'i/.m), n. [= F. purisuie = Sp. Pg. 
It. purisiiio ; as pure + -ism.] The exclusion of 
admixture of any kind ; the affectation of rigid 
purity, as in language, style, etc. ; specifically, 
excessive nicety as to the choice of words. 
The English language, however, It may be observed, had 
even already become too thoroughly and essentially a 
mixed tongue for this doctrine of purinn to be admitted 
to the letter. Craik, Hist. Eng. Lit., I. 419. 
Orthographic purigm is of all kinds of purinn the low- 
est and the cheapest, as is verbal criticism of all kinds of 
criticism, and word-faith of all kinds of orthodoxy. 
Whititey, Linguistic Studies, 2d ser., p. 192. 
to cleanse. 
purincator (pii'ri-fi-ka-tpr), . [Also purifiea- 
tiiril : < ML. piiriticatori'nm, < L. purifitare, pp. 
piirijicatits. make clean: see purify.] In the 
Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, a cloth 
or napkin used to wipe the chalice before the 
mixture (krasis) and oblation, and the cele- 
purist (pur'ist),M. [= F.j>uri8fc = 8p. Pg. It.px- 
rista; as pure + -ist.] 1. One who aims scru- 
pulously at purity, particularly in the choice 
of language : one who is a rigorous critic of 
purity in literary style. 
He [Fox] was so nervously apprehensive of sliding into 
some colloquial Incorrectness . . . that he ran into the 
opposite error, and purifled his vocabulary with a scrupu- 
losity unknown to any puritt. 
Macavlay, Sir James Mackintosh. 
2. One who maintains that the New Testament 
was written in pure Greek. M. Stuart. [Rare.] 
puristic (pu-ris'tik), ti. [< purist + -if.] Per- 
taining or relating to purism; characteristic of 
a purist. Maurice. 
puristical (pu-ris'ti-kal), n. [< purixtic + -al.] 
Same as puristic. 
puritan (pu'ri-tan), . and a. [Trreg. < L. 
l>i{>-itn(t-)x, purity, + -an. The F. Piiritain and 
Sp. Pg. It. PiiritHiii) are from E. The noun 
precedes the adj. in use.] I. . 1. One who is 
very strict and serious in his religious life, or 
who pretends to great purity of life : first used 
purity 
about 1564, and applied to certain Anabaptists: 
frequently a term of contempt . 
About dial lyine were many congregations of the Ana- 
baptysts in London, who cawlyd themselves Puritaiu or 
I n spot ted Lambs of the Lord. 
Stow, Memoranda (Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, 
|< '.linden Soc., p. 143). 
She would make a puritan of the devil, If he should 
cheapen a kiss of her. Shot., Pericles, Iv. 6. n. 
2. [cap.] One of a class of Protestants which 
arose in England in the sixteenth centurv. The 
Puritans maintained a strict Calvinism In doctrine, and 
demanded, in opposition to those who desired a reform of 
the church service, the substitution of one from which 
should be banished all resemblance whatever to the forms 
of the Roman Catholic Church. Large numbers of them 
were found both In and out of the Church of England, 
nnd various repressive measures were directed against 
them liy the sovereigns and by the prelates Parker, Whit- 
gift, Bancroft, 1 .ami. and others. In the reign of Charles I. 
the Puritans developed into a political party and gradu- 
ally gained the ascendancy, but lost iton Cromwell's death, 
and after the Restoration ceased to he prominent In his 
lory. During their early struggles many of them emi- 
grated to New England, especially to the Massachusetts 
Bay Colony. One band of Puritans who separated en- 
tirely from the Church were called Separatist or Brown 
/''*, and from them came the founders of the Plymouth 
Colony, often called Pilyrim Fathers or Pilyrimi. 
Now as solemn as a traveller, and as grave as a Puritan'* 
ruff. ilantun, Antonio and Mcllida, I., lml. 
From that time followed nothing but Imprisonment!, 
troubles, disgraces on all those that found fault with the 
Decrees of the Convocation, and strait were they branded 
with the Name of Furitaiu. 
Milton, Reformation In Eng., I. 
The extreme Puritan was at once known from other 
men by his gait, his garb, his lank hair, the sour solem* 
nlty of his face, the upturned white of his eyes, the nasal 
twang with which he spoke, and above all by his peculiar 
dialect. Macaulay. 
= 8yn. Puritan, Pilgrim. Careful distinction should be 
maue between the Pilyrimx or J*il<rriin Fathers, who set- 
tled at Plymouth in H!2ii, and the Puritan*, who In 1828-SO 
founded the colony of .Massachusetts Ray at Salem and 
Boston. 
II. n. [cap.] Of, pertaining to, or character- 
istic of the Puritans. 
Bee's gone ; III after him 
And know his trespass?, peeme to beare a part 
In all his ill-, but with a Puritan,- heart. 
Tourncur, Revenger's Tragedy, II. 2. 
Mr. Pynchcon's long residence abroad, and intercourse 
with men of wit and fashion courtiers, worldlings, and 
free-thinkershad done much toward obliterating the 
grim Puritan superstitions which no man of New Eng- 
land birth, at that early period, could entirely escape. 
Haulhorne, House of Seven Gables, xiii 
Gathering still, as he went, the May-flowers blooming 
around him ; . . . 
"Puritan flowers," he said, "and the type of Puritan 
maidens. 
Modest and simple and sweet, the very type of Prfscilla ! " 
LniujtrUmr, Miles standish, ill. 
= Syn. Puritan, Puritanic. Puritanic (or puritanical) Is 
now generally used in a depreciatlve sense; Puritan In a 
commendatory or a neutral sense. 
puritanic (pu-ri-tan'ik), a. [< puritan + -if.] 
1. Pertaining to the Puritans or their doctrines 
and practice. Hence 2. Very scrupulous in 
religious matters ; exact ; rigid : often used in 
contempt or reproach. 
Too dark a stole 
Was o'er religion's decent features drawn 
By puritanic teal. W. Haton, English Garden, iv. 
Syn. See Puritan, a. 
puntanical (pu-ri-tan'i-kal), a. [< puritanic 
+ -al.] Same as puritanic. 
Wearing feathers in thy hair, whose length before the 
vigorous edge of any puritanical pair of scissors should 
shorten the breadth of a finger, let the three housewifely 
spinsters of destiny rather curtail the thread of thy life. 
DeUrer, Gull's Hornbook, p. 88. 
Puritanical and superstitious principles /. Walton. 
It is quite certain that Bunyan was, at eighteen, what, 
in any but the most austerely puritanical circles, would 
have been considered as a young man of singular gravity 
and innocence. Macaulay, Encyc. Brit, IV. f>2A. 
puritanically (pu-ri-tan'i-kal-i), adr. In a puri- 
tanical manner; with the exact or rigid notions 
or manners of the Puritans. 
Puritanism (pu'ri-tan-izm), n. [= F. purita- 
nismc = Sp. Pg.puritanismo; ttspuritaa + -ism. ] 
1. Strictness of religious life ; puritanic strict- 
ness in religious matters. 2. The principles 
and practices of the Puritans. 
How resplendent and superb was the poetry that lay at 
the heart of Pitritfinvnn was seen by the sightless eyes of 
John Milton, whose great epic is indeed the epic of Puri- 
tanism. 11. C. Tyler, Hist. Amer. Lit., I. 2B6. 
puritanizefpu'ri-tiin-i/).;-. i.; pnt.Mdpp.jMfi- 
'. ppr. iiiiritttiii:iii<i. [< puritan + -i~t:] 
To conform to the opinions of Puritans ; affect 
or teach puritanism. 
purity (pu'n-ti). n. [< ME. pitrctr. < OF. pu- 
rctf, F. iinrcti' = Sp. jiurirlurt = Pg. pnritladc = 
It. pHritii,<}jL.piirit<i(t-)s, cleanness, pureness. 
< IJ.purus, clean, pure: see pure.] The condi- 
tion or quality of being pure, (a) Freedom from 
