Cleanse
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 An act of cleansing; a purification.
"I regularly visit the spa for a massage and a facial cleanse."
- 1 To free from dirt; to clean, to purify. transitive
"An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine."
- 2 clean one's body or parts thereof, as by washing wordnet
- 3 To spiritually purify; to free from guilt or sin; to purge. transitive
"[T]he famous Ganges: whoſe vnknowne head, pleaſant ſtreames, and long extent, haue amongſt thoſe Heathen Inhabitants, (by the Tradition of their Forefathers) gained a beliefe of clenſing all ſuch ſinnes, as the bodies of thoſe that waſh therein brought with them: [...]"
- 4 purge of an ideology, bad thoughts, or sins wordnet
- 5 To remove (something seen as unpleasant) from a person, place, or thing. transitive
Example
More examples"Cleanse me! Release me! Set me free!"
Etymology
From Middle English clensen, from Old English clǣnsian, from Proto-West Germanic *klainisōn, from Proto-West Germanic *klainī (“clean”). Cognate with West Frisian klinzgje (“to clean, cleanse”), archaic Dutch kleinzen (“to clean, purify”), Middle Low German klênsen, kleinsen, clensen (“to purify”).