Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To free from dirt, defilement, or guilt; purge or clean.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • 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).
  • To become clean.

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

  • transitive verb To render clean; to free from fith, pollution, infection, guilt, etc.; to clean.

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

  • verb transitive To free from dirt; to clean, purify.
  • verb transitive To spiritually purify; to free from sin or guilt; to purge.

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

  • verb clean one's body or parts thereof, as by washing
  • verb purge of an ideology, bad thoughts, or sins

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English clensen, from Old English clǣnsian, from clǣne, pure, clean.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English clǣnsian, from West Proto-Germanic *klainisōnan, from *klainiz (“clean”)

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Examples

  • The cleanse is still on, but I am feeling slightly less desperate than I was yesterday.

    June « 2010 « martinis & mantras 2010

  • But maybe once the cleanse is over, I'll date myself, too (no, not cheesy at all!!).

    Dating Myself Sarah 2009

  • 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.

    Catching up with Stan Kasten on the Dominican issue, etc. Adam Kilgore 2010

  • 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.

    Should New Orleans be rebuilt? « BuzzMachine 2005

  • 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,

    Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions 2009

  • 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.

    Why Does It Have to Require So Much Thought? 2008

  • 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.

    Archive 2008-08-31 2008

  • 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.'

    Expositions of Holy Scripture Psalms Alexander Maclaren 1868

  • 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.

    The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Todd Hartley 2012

  • "If I've been indulging in rich foods, a cleanse is a wonderful way to hit the reset button," said the

    Daily News & Analysis 2010

Comments

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  • "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?"

    April 21, 2011

  • Dung is a...

    a verb??

    April 22, 2011

  • ding, dang, dung

    April 22, 2011

  • The witch is dead?

    April 22, 2011