Cleanse

//klɛnz// noun, verb

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An act of cleansing; a purification.

    "I regularly visit the spa for a massage and a facial cleanse."

Verb
  1. 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. 2
    clean one's body or parts thereof, as by washing wordnet
  3. 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. 4
    purge of an ideology, bad thoughts, or sins wordnet
  5. 5
    To remove (something seen as unpleasant) from a person, place, or thing. transitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

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”).

Etymology 2

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”).

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