Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Rigorous in religious observance; marked by stern morality.
- adj. Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Puritans.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Same as puritanic.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.
- adj. Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid; — often used by way of reproach or contempt.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. exaggeratedly proper
- adj. morally rigorous and strict
- adj. of or relating to Puritans or Puritanism
Etymologies
- Formation from puritan and -ical suffix to produce definition 1. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“While secretly they laughed at what they termed her puritanical notions, they were shrewd enough to realize that they could hardly afford to snub a woman whose husband occupied so prominent a position in the world of affairs.”
“In counter-protest, newspaper editor Giuliano Ferrara hung up underwear in a Milan auditorium against what he calls a puritanical drive to oust the premier.”
“Not that Vance Corliss was anybody's fool, nor that his had been an anchorite's existence; but that his upbringing, rather, had given his life a certain puritanical bent.”
“I sometimes wish GUD didn't publish adult-leaning content so that we could more easily market to perspicacious YA -- but at least in puritanical-US, that would be litigiously dangerous.”
MIND MELD: If You Could Change Any Aspect of The Science Fiction Field, What Would it Be?
“The global warming cause is also an attack against pleasure, which is why it is so popular, especially in puritanical societies, among millions of people who have no clue about science.”
Is ‘Stop Liking Men Who Drive Hot Cars’ Sound Climate Advice? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
“My father, Richard Hoggart, was one of the witnesses in the real trial and, I guess, helped sway the jury with his insistence that the book, and Lawrence himself, were "puritanical" - not in the sense of hating pleasure but in having respect for one's own conscience.”
“It was an interesting combination, and its simplicity - Nigel calls it 'puritanical' - was popular, but for me it was just too dry.”
“People dont like these kind of pictures , it offends them specially the so called puritanical Muslims..but show them the pictures of the havoc on Iraqi streets , the jehhadi attacks, limbless bodies, they wont find fault with it, as all this spiritual terrorism against Humanity is condoned for the greater glory of Misguided Martydom and radical Islam..”
“Now, Bulgaria isn't what you would call a puritanical country.”
“To call it puritanical isn't enough because it is a perverse Puritanism... a lewd Puritanism that serves one purpose... to condemn eroticism the better to talk about it, to salivate for weeks and months over tasty details, to evoke fellatio, sperm, genital organs with a delectation disguised as indignation.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘puritanical’.
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Test Prep or Just for fun
Building a list for standardized test prep or just for learning some new words! Please add any words that you feel are important for the SAT/GRE/GMAT etc...
throng, morass, parley, facile, kismet, strife, jetsam, carrion, annex, harbinger, vestige, surreptitious and 575 more...
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Words that shouldn't be used on a fir...
probation, trekkie, wart, unemployed, fetish, suspended driver'..., felon, aerophagia, undies, debt collector, girlfriend, boyfriend and 272 more...
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Pickle and such
Words that end like pickle. Listed here because they're funny (because they end like pickle).
pickle, sparkle, yokel, tinkle, fickle, prickle, trickle, circle, snorkel, ensnorkel, chuckle, buckle and 137 more...
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jilma's list
favorite sounding words
alchemy, missoula, tenacity, colibrí, lilith, tangible, tangle, emblazoned, brazen, willowy, baroque, macabre and 35 more...
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phil vocab 3
genocide, superfluous, warfare, indissoluble, sentient, confound, pernicious, dispose, render, amiable, paradox, puritanical and 36 more...
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 more...
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slackagogo's Words
agelast, aggiornamento, zaftig, wowserism, vox barbara, verbigeration, tchotchke, tautology, sycophant, spoonerism, solipsism, sobriquet and 288 more...
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JesusIsLord's Words
debauchery, plethora, wiki, numinous, wormwood, scribe, gelded, mithridate, orthogonal, jaculiferous, jaculate, jactitation and 415 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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je les adore!
fusillade, foal, celestial, abattoir, byzantium, berlin, casablanca, babylon, balkans, albion, avalon, between the devil... and 471 more...
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NTDW1
template, modal, sublingual, tandem, polycentric, septuagenarian, token, irrevocable, denotive, augural, aberrant, phlebotomy and 1188 more...
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Naresh_Gre
The path meanders through the vineyards
meander, labyrinth, Sinuous, gyrate, caron, awry, credo, banter, juxtaposition, argot, inexorable, foibles and 223 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 996 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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