puritanical, a.
(pjʊərɪˈtænɪkəl)
[f. as prec. + -ical.]
Pertaining to or characteristic of the Puritans, or of puritans generally; having the character of a puritan; marked by the strictness, plainness, or other quality of puritans. (Chiefly in disparagement. In quot. 1882–3 used as = puritan a.)
| 1607 Dekker & Webster Northw. Hoe i. i, His wiues puritanicall coynesse. 1624 in Rymer Fœdera XVII. 616 Seditious Puritanical books and pamphlets, scandalous to our person or state, such as have been lately vented by some Puritanical spirits. c 1683 Burnet Orig. Mem. i. (1902) 71 The duke [of York] complained of this [insertion in the Bk. of Comm. Prayer] much to me as a puritanical thing. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. e j b, That Sect..was in Mahometanism the most Puritanical of all the Sects of the East. 1712 Addison Spect. No. 458 ¶6 Every Appearance of Devotion was looked upon as Puritannical. 1878 T. L. Cuyler Pointed Papers 162, I do not want to be thought queer or puritanical. 1879 L. Stephen Hours in Library III. 84 That Fielding in his hatred for humbug should have condemned purity as puritanical, is clearly lamentable. 1882–3 Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. 430/2 Pastor of a puritanical Calvinistic Congregation in..Boston. |
Hence puriˈtanically adv., in a puritanical way; after the manner of the Puritans.
| 1607 Dekker & Webster Northw. Hoe iii. D.'s Wks. 1873 III. 41 Shee would do it so puritannically, so secretly I meane, that no body should heare of it. 1706 Hearne Collect. 9 Apr. (O.H.S.) I. 221 [He] was a little Puritannically inclin'd. 1847 Lytton Lucretia ii. xvii, The forehead, over which that stiff, harsh hair was so puritanically parted. |