purify Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb remove impurities from, increase the concentration of, and separate through the process of distillation
    make pure; sublimate; distill.
    • purify the water
  2. verb make pure or free from sin or guilt
    purge; sanctify.
    • he left the monastery purified
  3. verb become clean or pure or free of guilt and sin
    • The hippies came to the ashram in order to purify

WordNet

Pu"ri*fy transitive verb
Etymology
F.purifier, L. purificare; purus pure + -ficare (in comp.) to make. See Pure, and -fy.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Purified ; present participle & verbal noun Purifying
Definitions
  1. To make pure or clear from material defilement, admixture, or imperfection; to free from extraneous or noxious matter; as, to purify liquors or metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air.
  2. Hence, in figurative uses: (a) To free from guilt or moral defilement; as, to purify the heart.
    And fit them so Purified to receive him pure. Milton.
    (b) To free from ceremonial or legal defilement.
    And Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar, . . . and purified the altar. Lev. viii. 15.
    Purify both yourselves and your captives. Num. xxxi. 19.
    (c) To free from improprieties or barbarisms; as, to purify a language. Sprat.
Pu"ri*fy intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To grow or become pure or clear.

Webster 1913