cleanse

Valid in Scrabble

Scrabble points
9
Words With Friends
12
Letters
7
Pronunciation
/klɛnz/

Definition of cleanse

4 senses · 2 parts of speech · etymology included

verb

  1. (transitive)To free from dirt; to clean, to purify.
    “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.”
See all 4 definitions

verb

  1. (transitive)To free from dirt; to clean, to purify.
    “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. (transitive)To spiritually purify; to free from guilt or sin; to purge.
    “[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: [...]”
  3. (transitive)To remove (something seen as unpleasant) from a person, place, or thing.

noun

  1. (countable, uncountable)An act of cleansing; a purification.
    “I regularly visit the spa for a massage and a facial cleanse.”

Definitions from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA.

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”).

Hooks

3 extensions · 3 back

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