Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To free from dirt, defilement, or guilt; purge or clean.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make clean; free from filth, impurity, infection, or, in general, from whatever is polluting, noxious, or offensive.
- To free from moral impurity or guilt.
- To remove; wash or purge away.
- In calico-printing, to render (the undyed parts) white and clean by removing the excess of mordant from them by immersion in a bath of cow-dung and warm water, or in some artificial substitute; to dung.
- In brewing, to remove the yeast from (the beer). Synonyms Clean, Cleanse. See
clean . - To become clean.
Wiktionary
- v. To free from dirt; to clean, purify.
- v. To spiritually purify; to free from sin or guilt; to purge.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To render clean; to free from fith, pollution, infection, guilt, etc.; to clean.
WordNet 3.0
- v. clean one's body or parts thereof, as by washing
- v. purge of an ideology, bad thoughts, or sins
Etymologies
- Middle English clensen, from Old English clǣnsian, from clǣne, pure, clean.
Examples
“One of Stan Kasten's final missions as team president of the Nationals was assisting Major League Baseball in its ongoing effort to cleanse from the Dominican Republic corrupt practices in signing youthful players.”
The Washington Post: Catching up with Stan Kasten on the Dominican issue, etc.
“The cleanse is still on, but I am feeling slightly less desperate than I was yesterday.”
“But maybe once the cleanse is over, I'll date myself, too (no, not cheesy at all!!).”
“Let Lake Ponchetrain cleanse the land of the filth and remnants of decadance that thrived in that decrepit excuse for a city since its inception.”
“I understand the first part, but I need to know if you have to follow the daily eating only certain things. its called a cleanse it gets all the crap out of your body,”
“Imagine my shock, when within hours of meeting you I was crippled with fever, cramps, non-stop vomiting, and a complete -- ummm. let's call it "cleanse" -- as my body tried to reject you.”
“It is connected with the former of them by the recurrence of the same word, which in the first petition was rendered 'cleanse' -- or, more accurately, 'clear' -- and in this final clause is to be rendered accurately, 'I shall be _clear_ from the great transgression.”
“As of this writing, I am now 48 hours into a meat-, dairy-, sugar-, alcohol-, chocolate-, processed-food- and taste-free vegetarian detox cleanse, which is the longest I've gone without eating meat by roughly 46 hours.”
“If I've been indulging in rich foods, a cleanse is a wonderful way to hit the reset button," said the”
“She added: "If I've been indulging in rich foods, a cleanse is a wonderful way to hit the reset button.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘cleanse’.
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Cattle
cattle, cow, beef, steer, heifer, calf, bull, cattle call, Black Angus, Hereford, Holstein, Dwarf Lulu and 376 more...
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The Blacklist
Stop SOPA.
blackout, redact, bowdlerize, censor, remove, conceal, bleach, bleep, blue-pencil, control, edit, excise and 24 more...
reesetee The witch is dead? Apr 21, 2011
bilby ding, dang, dung Apr 21, 2011
reesetee Dung is a...
a verb?? Apr 21, 2011
ruzuzu "In calico-printing, to render (the undyed parts) white and clean by removing the excess of mordant from them by immersion in a bath of cow-dung and warm water, or in some artificial substitute; to dung." --Cent. Dict.
"To dung?"
Apr 21, 2011