purify, v.
(ˈpjʊərɪfaɪ)
Also 4 -yfie, 4–7 -ifie, 5 -efie, 5–6 -yfy(e; 6 pa. pple. (Sc.) purifit, -feit.
[a. F. purifi-er (12th c.), ad. late L. pūrificāre, f. L. pūr-us pure: see -fy.]
I. trans. To make pure, in various senses.
1. To free from admixture of extraneous matter, esp. such as pollutes or deteriorates; to rid of (material) defilement or taint; to cleanse.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 417/1 Puryfyyn, clensyn, or make clene. 1490 Caxton Eneydos xv. 54 The ayer purifyeth and clenseth hym selfe for to receyue the Impressyons of influences of this god. 1508 Kennedie Flyting w. Dunbar 340, I..dulcely drank of eloquence the fontayne, Quhen it was purifit with frost, and flowit cleir. 1555 Eden Decades 327 To purifie or pourge it [the metall] from drosse. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxviii. 243 There used to be fires made..to purifie the aire. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 541 Th' officious Nymphs,..With Waters..From earthly dregs his Body purifie. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. 71 This sulphur may be purified..by washing it. 1837 Goring & Pritchard Microgr. 205 The mode of generating and purifying the oxygen gas. 1841 T. R. Jones Anim. Kingd. xxviii. 567 The air required for purifying the blood is, of course, continually changed. |
b. Eccl. See quots. and cf. purification 1 b.
| 1858 Purchas Direct. Anglic. 62 The Celebrant..first purifies the corporal..and then purifies the paten. 1876 Scudamore Not. Euch. 806 In the Roman rite the Minister first ‘pours into the Chalice a little wine for the Priest to purify himself’. 1885 Cath. Dict. (ed. 3) App. s.v. Purification, Innocent III{ddd}laid it down that the priest should always use wine to purify the chalice, and drink it, unless he was going to say another Mass. |
2. To cleanse from moral or spiritual defilement; to rid of base motive or feeling; to free from taint of guilt or sin.
| a 1300 E.E. Psalter l[i.] 8 Þou shalt purifie me, and y shal be made whyȝte vp snowe. c 1340 Hampole Prose Tr. 14 When þe will and þe affeccyone es puryfiede and clensede fra all fleschely lustes. c 1422 Hoccleve Learn to Die 624 He shal be pourged cleene & purified, And disposid the glorie of god to see. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 122 By this gyfte of goostly scyence, the tonge of man or woman is purifyed & fyled. 1611 Bible 1 John iii. 3 Euery man that hath this hope in him, purifieth himselfe, euen as he is pure. 1729 Law Serious C. xxi. 420 Purifying his heart all manner of ways, fearful of every error and defect in his life. 1872 Morley Voltaire (1886) 3 Each did much to..purify the spiritual self-respect of mankind. |
3. To make ceremonially clean; to free from ceremonial uncleanness. Formerly spec. of the churching of women (mostly in pass.).
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 310 Þe quene Margerete with childe þan was sche,..þe kyng..went way, to se hir & hir barn, & with hir he soiorned, tille sho was purified. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) I. 101 No man durste neyhe [to Mount Sinai], but he were purified and i-made all clene. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 75/2 Chyrchyn, or puryfyen, purifico. 1548–9 (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Purif. Weomen, The woman that is purifyed, must offer her Crysome. 1671 Milton P.R. i. 74 In the Consecrated stream..to wash off sin, and fit them so Purified to receive him pure. 1819 Scott Ivanhoe xxxviii, The holy places [have been] purified from pollution by the blood of those infidels who defiled them. 1853 J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. i. iii. 138 Their priests washed and purified the altars where the Latin priests had said mass. |
4. To free from blemish or corruption (in ideal or general sense); to clear of foreign or alien elements, esp. of anything that contaminates or debases.
| a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII 59 The kynge hauynge peace as well with foreyne princes,..as disburdened and purified of all domesticall sedicion. 1665 Sprat Hist. R. Soc. i. 40 He saw the French Tongue abundantly purifi'd. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. III. 373 The country communes determined (April, 1530) that these churches too should be purified. 1890 Spectator 27 Dec., The desire of the Russian Government to ‘purify’ Poland of Germans. |
5. Law. To make (a contract or obligation) ‘pure’ by freeing it from conditions; also, to fulfil (a condition) so as to render the obligation ‘pure’: see pure a. 2 c.
| 1590 Swinburne Testaments 133 If he die, then is the condition said to be purified or extant, and so thou art to bee admitted, otherwise not. a 1624 ― Spousals (1686) 130 Whether in this Case the conditional Contract be purified and made perfect Matrimony, is a Question. 1861 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. s.v. Obligation, A conditional obligation, dependent on an event which may never happen, has no obligatory force until the condition be purified. |
6. transf. with the thing removed as obj.: To cleanse or clear away. rare.
| 1399 Gower To Hen. IV, 349 Al his lepre it hath so purified. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 2 He, who shineth in darkness, will..purify your pollutions. |
II. 7. intr. for refl. To become pure.
| 1668 R. Steele Husbandman's Calling ix. (1672) 237 Water, if it stand, it putrifies: if it run, it purifies. 1800 Med. Jrnl. III. 580 He does not put it in water to purify. 1805 Southey Let. to C. W. W. Wynn in Life (1850) II. 347 Send them to new settlements, and let the old ones purify. 1852 Manning Gr. Faith i. 21 Of the intermediate state of departed souls, purifying for the kingdom of God. |