Puritan

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A member of a group of English Protestants who in the 16th and 17th centuries advocated strict religious discipline along with simplification of the ceremonies and creeds of the Church of England.
2. n. One who lives in accordance with Protestant precepts, especially one who regards pleasure or luxury as sinful.
3. adj. Of or relating to the Puritans or Puritanism.
4. adj. Characteristic of a puritan; puritanical.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who is very strict and serious in his religious life, or who pretends to great purity of life: first used about 1564, and applied to certain Anabaptists: frequently a term of contempt.
2. n. [capitalized] One of a class of Protestants which arose in England in the sixteenth century. The Puritans maintained a strict Calvinism in doctrine, and demanded, in opposition to those who desired a reform of the church service, the substitution of one from which should be banished all resemblance whatever to the forms of the Roman Catholic Church. Large numbers of them were found both in and out of the Church of England, and various repressive measures were directed against them by the sovereigns and by the prelates Parker, Whitgift, Bancroft, Laud, and others. In the reign of Charles I. the Puritans developed into a political party and gradually gained the ascendancy, but lost it on Cromwell's death, and after the Restoration ceased to be prominent in history. During their early struggles many of them emigrated to New England, especially to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. One band of Puritans who separated entirely from the Church were called Separatists or Brownists, and from them came the founders of the Plymouth Colony, often called Pilgrim Fathers or Pilgrims.
3. n. Synonyms Puritan, Pilgrim. Careful distinction should be made between the Pilgrims or Pilgrim Fathers, who settled at Plymouth in 1620, and the Puritans, who in 1628–30 founded the colony of Massachusetts Bay at Salem and Boston.
4. [capitalized] Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Puritans.
5. Synonyms Puritan, Puritanic. Puritanic (or puritanical) is now generally used in a depreciative sense; Puritan in a commendatory or a neutral sense.

Wiktionary

1. n. A member of a particular Protestant religious sect.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Eccl. Hist.) One who, in the time of Queen Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts, opposed traditional and formal usages, and advocated simpler forms of faith and worship than those established by law; -- originally, a term of reproach. The Puritans formed the bulk of the early population of New England.
2. n. One who is scrupulous and strict in his religious life; -- often used reproachfully or in contempt; one who has overstrict notions.
3. adj. Of or pertaining to the Puritans; resembling, or characteristic of, the Puritans.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a member of a group of English Protestants who in the 16th and 17th centuries thought that the Protestant Reformation under Elizabeth was incomplete and advocated the simplification and regulation of forms of worship
2. n. a person excessively concerned about propriety and decorum
3. n. someone who adheres to strict religious principles; someone opposed to sensual pleasures