immaculate, a.
(ɪˈmækjʊlət)
Also 5 in-.
[ad. L. immaculātus, f. im- (im-2) + maculātūs spotted, maculate.]
1. Free from spot or stain; pure, spotless, unblemished, undefiled. In fig. senses.
| c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems 79 The kyng of hevene blis; That..Into a virgyns wombe immaculate Descendid. c 1460 in Pol. Rel. & L. Poems 81 Heyle towre of Dauid & vyrgyn immaculat! 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. i. li. (W. de W. 1495) 107 b, To haue kepte my soule Inmaculate and undefoylled. 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII 56 Their counsayll infected and corrupted the kynges clene and immaculate conscience. 1653 H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1713) 235 This Life is pure and immaculate Love, and this Love is God. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxiii. (1869) I. 653 The exercise of their sacred functions requires an immaculate purity. 1850 A. Jameson Leg. Monast. Ord. (1863) 180 Convinced of his wife's immaculate purity. |
† b. Constr. from. Obs.
| 1579 Fulke Heskin's Parl. 373 As they were imaculate from faults of their bodies, so he..was immaculate from sins. 1790 Gibbon Misc. Wks. (1814) III. 507 His chastity was immaculate from sin or scandal. |
c. Immaculate Conception, the conception of the Virgin Mary, as held to have been free from the taint of original sin: in 1854 declared to be an article of faith of the Roman Church.
| 1687 Burnet Trav. i. (1750) 31 The Dominicans..were..obliged to assert, that she was born in Original Sin..By this the Dominicans began to lose Ground extremely in the Minds of the People, who were strongly prepossess'd in favour of the immaculate Conception. 1782 Priestley Corrupt. Chr. I. iv. 380 The university..declared for the immaculate conception. 1861 Stanley East. Ch. viii. (1869) 264. 1871 Freeman Norm. Conq. IV. xviii. 137 The feast of the Conception—not yet declared to be immaculate—of our Lady. |
d. immaculate lamb, applied to Christ, after L. agnus immaculatus (Gr. ἀµνὸς ἄµωµος), 1 Pet. i. 19.
| c 1450 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 272 This immaculat lombe that I xal ȝow ȝeve Is..bothe God and man. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 10 The immaculate lambe Jesu Chryst, the sone of God. 1772 Fletcher Logica Genev. 209 The personal righteousness of the immaculate Lamb of God. 1858 Neale tr. Bernard de M. 388 He, Lamb Immaculate. |
2. Free from fault of flaw. (Chiefly in negative or ironical use.)
| 1832 W. Irving Alhambra II. 147 The words of the immaculate Fredegonda. 1856 Dove Logic Chr. Faith i. i. §2. 48 The Sceptical philosophy is by no means so immaculate. 1863 Bright Sp. Amer. 26 Mar., You are not immaculate and..your wisdom..is not absolutely perfect. |
b. Of manuscripts or printed books: Absolutely free from textual errors.
| 1841 Myers Cath. Th. iii. xiii. 49 They [the Jews] believed..that all the manuscripts of their Law were immaculate, and the same to a letter. 1862 Burton Bk. Hunter (1863) 65 Editions which claim a sort of canonization as immaculate, as for instance the Virgil of Didot and the Horace of Foulis. |
3. In literal senses: a. Spotlessly clean or neat.
| 1735 Pope Donne Sat. iv. 253 A white-glov'd Chaplain..in immac'late trim, Neatness itself impertinent in him. 1853 J. Brown Horæ Subs. Ser. 1. (1882) 169 Then out to parade..in proper trim, pipe-clay immaculate. 1856 Mrs. Stowe Dred I. iv. 52 Every plait of her immaculate cap. |
b. Nat. Hist. Without coloured spots or marks; unspotted.
| 1797 T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. 54 He describes the male bird to be of an immaculate white. 1828 Starke Elem. Nat. Hist. II. 198 Abdomen..with spots and angulated bands of brown and white; legs immaculate. 1847 Hardy in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club II. No. 5. 236 Thorax narrowed towards the base, immaculate. |
Hence iˈmmaculately adv., spotlessly, stainlessly, faultlessly.
| a 1711 Ken Hymnarium Poet. Wks. 1721 II. 4 Thou art God alone, Thy Nature is immaculately pure. 1870 Disraeli Lothair lvii, Those cheeks usually so immaculately fair. |