Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not pure or clean; contaminated.
  • adjective Not purified by religious rite; unclean.
  • adjective Immoral or sinful.
  • adjective Mixed with another, usually inferior substance; adulterated.
  • adjective Being a composite of more than one color or mixed with black or white.
  • adjective Deriving from more than one source, style, or convention; eclectic.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make impure; defile.
  • To grow impure.
  • Not pure physically; mixed or impregnated with extraneous, and especially with offensive, matter; foul; feculent; tainted: as, impure water or air; impure salt or magnesia.
  • Not simple or unmixed; mixed or combined with something else: said of immaterial things.
  • Not pure morally; unchaste; obscene; lewd: as, impure language or ideas; impure actions.
  • Of a contaminating nature; causing defilement, physical or moral; unclean; abominable.
  • Not in conformity with a standard of correctness, simplicity, etc.: as, an impure style of writing.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To defile; to pollute.
  • adjective Not pure; not clean; dirty; foul; filthy; containing something which is unclean or unwholesome; mixed or impregnated extraneous substances; adulterated
  • adjective Defiled by sin or guilt; unholy; unhallowed; -- said of persons or things.
  • adjective Unchaste; lewd; unclean; obscene.
  • adjective (Script.) Not purified according to the ceremonial law of Moses; unclean.
  • adjective (Language) Not accurate; not idiomatic

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not pure; not clean; dirty; foul; filthy; containing something which is unclean or unwholesome; mixed or impregnated extraneous substances; adulterated; as, impure water or air; impure drugs, food, etc.
  • adjective Defiled by sin or guilt; unholy; unhallowed; -- said of persons or things.
  • adjective Unchaste; lewd; unclean; obscene; as, impure language or ideas.
  • verb transitive (obsolete) to defile; to pollute

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective combined with extraneous elements
  • adjective (used of persons or behaviors) immoral or obscene
  • adjective having a physical or moral blemish so as to make impure according to dietary or ceremonial laws

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin impurus

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