▪ I. lustrate, v.1
(ˈlʌstreɪt)
[f. L. lūstrāt-, ppl. stem of lūstrāre, to purify by lustral rites, to go round, review, survey, f. lūstrum: see lustrum.]
1. trans. To purify by a propitiatory offering; to cleanse by (or as if by) lustration; gen. to purify.
| 1653 [see lustrating below]. 1655 Stanley Hist. Philos. i. (1701) 18/1 There was also a great Plague; the Oracle advis'd them to lustrate the City. Ibid. 57/1 He [Epimenides] is reported to be the first that lustrated Houses and Fields, which he performed by Verse. 1718 Rowe tr. Lucan iii. 601 Barb'rous Priests some dreadful Pow'r adore, And lustrate ev'ry Tree with human Gore. 1746 T. Seward Conform. betw. Popery & Paganism 55 This Custom of Nurses lustrating the Children by Spittle. 1818 J. C. Hobhouse Hist. Illustr. (ed. 2) 319 The city was solemnly lustrated by holy water and missions,..to purge away the contagion of the French. 1891 tr. De La Saussaye's Man. Sci. Relig. xix. 160 The sacrificial animals were led round the object which was to be lustrated. |
† 2. a. intr. To pass or go through (a place). b. trans. To pass through or traverse. Obs.
| 1632 Vicars æn. viii. 303 Thrice through Aventines mount he doth lustrate. 1657–83 Evelyn Hist. Relig. (1850) I. 83 His soul lustrates and pervades through all things. 1721 Bailey, Gangweek, the Time when the bounds of the Parishes are lustrated by the Parish-Officers, Rogation-Week. |
† 3. trans. To view, survey. Obs.
| 1623 Cockeram, Lustrate, to view. a 1648 Ld. Herbert Hen. VIII (1683) Ep. Ded., The parts thereof, as fast as I could finish them, were lustrated by Your gracious Eye. |
Hence ˈlustrating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1653 Manton Exp. James iii. 17 Being in an idol temple, the lustrating water fell upon them. 1653 Hammond Par. & Annot. N.T., 1 Cor. iv. 13 Wks. 1659 III. 520 Περικαθαρµατα [filth] signifies those things that are used in the lustrating of a city among the Gentiles. 1728 Earbery tr. Burnet's St. Dead II. 52 Lustrating or purging Fires. 1846 New Timon (ed. 3) 178 The penitent offering the lustrating tide. |
▪ II. † ˈlustrate, v.2 Obs.
[f. lustre n.1 + -ate.]
trans. To impart lustre to; = lustre v.
| 1688 Abridgm. Spec. Patents, Weaving (1861) 1 Invencion of making, dressing, and lustrateing silke, called black plain, alamodes, ranforcees, and lutestringes. 1689 Lond. Gaz. No. 2454/4 Peter Du Clou who Dresseth and Lustrateth Silks, Stuffs, &c. 1697–8 Act 9 Will. III, c. 43 §13. |