purifier
(ˈpjʊərɪfaɪə(r))
[f. as prec. + -er1.]
1. A person who purifies (in various senses); a cleanser; a refiner.
| 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. Pref. i. in Ashm. Theat. Chem. Brit. (1652) 121 O pitewouse puryfyer of Soules. 1611 Bible Mal. iii. 3 He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of siluer. 1775 Adair Amer. Ind. 91 The predicted Shilo, who is to be their purifier, king, prophet, and high-priest. 1826 [Hallam] in Edin. Rev. XLIV. 5 note, One of the earliest purifiers of English style from pedantry. 1868 Stanley Westm. Abb. 284 Addison the noblest purifier of English literature. |
2. A thing that purifies (in various senses).
| 1660–2 Jer. Taylor Serm. Jas. ii. 24 Faith is a great purger and purifier of the soul. 1793 Beddoes Lett. Darwin 70 Oxygene air, which..deserves to be considered as the true sweetner or purifier of the blood. 1893 in Barrows Parl. Relig. II. 914 [Zoroastrianism] considers the sun as the greatest purifier. |
3. An apparatus or contrivance for purifying; spec. a. An apparatus in which coal-gas is purified by passing it through or over lime or other substance; a gas-purifier. b. A separator to remove bran scales and flour from grits or middlings.
| 1834 Encycl. Brit. (ed. 7) X. 352/1 (Gas-light) A series of purifiers. 1836 Brande Chem. 495 The gaseous products [of coal]..are passed through or over hydrate of lime, or through a mixture of quicklime and water, in vessels called purifiers, by which the sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic acid gases are absorbed. 1856 in Orr's Circ. Sci., Pract. Chem. 504 The gas is..made to pass through a set of vessels..the purifiers. These contain milk of lime, or lime that has been recently slaked. In the former case it is named a wet-lime purifier, and in the latter a dry. 1884 Bath Herald 27 Dec. 6/4 [In a flour-mill] the most important machines are the ‘purifiers’. |