sanctify

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To set apart for sacred use; consecrate.
2. v. To make holy; purify.
3. v. To give religious sanction to, as with an oath or vow: sanctify a marriage.
4. v. To give social or moral sanction to.
5. v. To make productive of holiness or spiritual blessing.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To make holy or clean, either ceremonially or morally and spiritually; purify or free from sin.
2. To consecrate; set apart from a common to a sacred use; hallow or render sacred; invest with a sacred or elevated character: said of things or persons.
3. To make efficient as a means of holiness; render productive of spiritual blessing.
4. To make free from guilt; give a religious or a legal sanction to.
5. To keep pure; render inviolable.
6. To celebrate or confess as holy.
7. Synonyms To hallow.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To make holy; to consecrate. Set aside for sacred or ceremonial use.
2. v. transitive To free from sin; to purify.
3. v. transitive To make acceptable or useful under religious law or practice.
4. v. transitive To endorse with religious sanction.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To make sacred or holy; to set apart to a holy or religious use; to consecrate by appropriate rites; to hallow.
2. v. To make free from sin; to cleanse from moral corruption and pollution; to purify.
3. v. To make efficient as the means of holiness; to render productive of holiness or piety.
4. v. To impart or impute sacredness, venerableness, inviolability, title to reverence and respect, or the like, to; to secure from violation; to give sanction to.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. make pure or free from sin or guilt
2. v. render holy by means of religious rites