Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PUR'BLIND, a. [said to be from pore and blind.]

Near-sighted or dim-sighted; seeing obscurely; as, a purblind eye; a purblind mole. – Shak. Drummond.

PUR'BLIND-LY, adv.

In a purblind manner. – Scott.

PUR'BLIND-NESS, n.

Shortness of sight; near-sightedness; dimness of vision.

PUR'CHAS-A-BLE, a. [from purchase.]

That may be bought, purchased or obtained for a consideration.

PUR'CHASE, n. [Norm. Fr. pourchas or purchas.]

1. In law, the act of obtaining or acquiring the title to lands and tenements by money, deed, gift or any means, except by descent; the acquisition of lands and tenements by a man's own act or agreement. – Littleton. Blackstone.
2. In law, the suing out and obtaining a writ.
3. In common usage, the acquisition of the title or property of any thing by rendering an equivalent in money. It is foolish to lay out money in the purchase of repentance. – Franklin.
4. That which is purchased; any thing of which the property is obtained by giving an equivalent price in money. The scrip was complete evidence of his right in the purchase. – Wheaton.
5. That which is obtained by labor, danger, art, &c. A beauty waning and distressed widow / Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye. – Shak.
6. Formerly, robbery and the thing stolen. – Chaucer.
7. Any mechanical hold, advantage, power or force applied to the raising or removing of heavy bodies.

PUR'CHASE, v.i.

In seamen's language, to draw in; as, the capstern purchases apace, that is, it draws in the cable apace, it gains it. – Encyc.

PUR'CHASE, v.t. [Fr. pourchasser, to seek, to pursue; pour and chasser, to chase, It. cacciare, Sp. cazar. This word seems to be considered by Blackstone as formed from the L. perquisitio. This is an error. The word is from the root of chase; pourchasser is to pursue to the end or object, and hence to obtain. In law Latin, purchase, the noun, was written purchacium. The legal use of the word in obtaining writs, shows best its true origin; to purchase a writ, is to sue out a writ, that is, to seek it out; for sue, seek, and L. sequor, are all of one origin, and synonymous with chase. See Blackstone, b. 3, ch. 18. Spellman ad voc.]

1. In its primary and legal sense, to gain, obtain or acquire by any means, except by descent or hereditary right. – Blackstone.
2. In common usage, to buy; to obtain property by paying an equivalent in money. It differs from barter only in the circumstance, that in purchasing, the price or equivalent given or secured is money; in bartering, the equivalent is given in goods. We purchase lands or goods for ready money or on credit.
3. To obtain by an expense of labor, danger or other sacrifice; as, to purchase favor with flattery. A world who would not purchase with a bruise? – Milton.
4. To expiate or recompense by a fine or forfeit; as, to purchase out abuses with tears and prayer. – Shak.
5. To sue out or procure, as a writ.

PUR'CHAS-ED, pp.

1. Obtained or acquired by one's own act or agreement.
2. Obtained by paying an equivalent in money.
3. Obtained by labor, danger, art, &c.

PUR'CHASE-MON'EY, n.

The money paid for any thing bought. – Berkeley.

PUR'CHAS-ER, n.

1. In law, one who acquires or obtains by conquest or by deed or gift, or in any manner other than by descent or inheritance. In this sense, the word is by some authors written purchasor. – Blackstone.
2. One who obtains or acquires the property of any thing by paying an equivalent in money.

PUR'CHAS-ING, ppr.

Buying; obtaining by one's own act or for a price.

PURE, a. [L. purus; It. and Sp. puro; Fr. pur; W. pûr; Sax. pur; Heb. בר. The verb ברר signifies to separate, free, clear; a sense taken from driving off. The word varied in orthography, occurs in Ch. Syr. and Ar. See ברא in the Introduction. Class Br, No. 7, and 6, 8, 9, 10.]

1. Separate from all heterogeneous or extraneous matter; clear; free from mixture; as, pure water; pure clay; pure sand; pure air; pure silver or gold. Pure wine is very scarce.
2. Free from moral defilement; without spot; not sullied or tarnished; incorrupt; undebased by moral turpitude; holy. Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil. – Hab. i. Prov. xx.
3. Genuine; real; true; incorrupt; unadulterated; as, pure religion. James i.
4. Unmixed; separate from any other subject or from every thing foreign; as, pure mathematics.
5. Free from guilt; guiltless; innocent. No hand of strife is pure, but that which wins. – Daniel.
6. Not vitiated with improper or corrupt words or phrases; as, a pure style of discourse or composition.
7. Disinterested; as, pure benevolence.
8. Chaste; as, a pure virgin.
9. Free from vice or moral turpitude. – Tit. i.
10. Ceremonially clean; unpolluted. – Ezra vi.
11. Free from any thing improper; as, his motives are pure.
12. Mere; absolute; that and that only; unconnected with any thing else; as, a pure villain. He did that from pure compassion, or pure good nature.

PURE, v.t.

To purify; to cleanse. [Not in use.] – Chaucer.

PURE'LY, adv.

1. In a pure manner; with an entire separation of heterogeneous or foul matter. – Is. i.
2. Without any mixture of improper or vicious words or phrases.
3. Innocently; without guilt.
4. Merely; absolutely; without connection with any thing else; completely; totally. The meeting was purely accidental.

PURE'NESS, n.

1. Clearness; an unmixed state; separation or freedom from any heterogeneous or foreign matter; as, the pureness of water or other liquor; the pureness of a metal; the pureness of marl or clay; the pureness of air.
2. Freedom from moral turpitude or guilt. May we evermore serve thee in holiness and pureness of living. – Com. Prayer.
3. Simplicity; freedom from mixture or composition. An essence eternal and spiritual, of absolute pureness and simplicity. – Ralegh.
4. Freedom from vicious or improper words, phrases or modes of speech; as, pureness of style. – Ascham. Pure villenage, in the feudal law, is a tenure of lands by uncertain services at the will of the lord; opposed to privileged villenage. – Blackstone.

PUR'FILE, n. [Fr. pourfilée; pour and file.]

A sort of ancient trimming for women's gowns, made of tinsel and thread, called also bobbin-work. – Bailey. [The thing and the name are obsolete.]

PUR'FLE, or PUR'FLEW, n.

1. A border of embroidered work.
2. In heraldry, ermins, peans or furs which compose a bordure. – Encyc.

PUR'FLE, v.t. [Fr. pourfiler; It. profilare. See Profile.]

To decorate with a wrought or flowered border; to embroider; as, to purfle with blue and white, or with gold and pearl. [Obs.] – Spenser. Shak. Milton.

PUR'FLED, a.

Ornamented with a flowered border.

PURG'A-MENT, n. [L. purgamen.]

A cathartic. – Bacon.

PURG-A'TION, n. [Fr. from L. purgatio. See Purge.]

1. The act or operation of clearing, cleansing or purifying by separating and carrying off impurities or whatever is superfluous; applied to the body; as, the intestines are cleared by purgation. So also in pharmacy and in chimistry, medicines, metals and minerals are purified by purgation. – Encyc.
2. In law, the act of cleansing from a crime, accusation or suspicion of guilt. This was canonical or vulgar. Canonical purgation, prescribed by the canon law, was performed before the bishop or his deputy, and by a jury of twelve clerks. The party accused first made oath to his own innocence, and then the twelve clerks or compurgators swore that they believed he spoke the truth; after which, other witnesses were examined upon oath, on behalf of the prisoner only. Vulgar purgation was performed by the ordeal of fire or water, or by combat. [See Ordeal.] – Blackstone.

PURG'A-TIVE, a. [It. purgativo; Fr. purgatif.]

Having the power of cleansing; usually, having the power of evacuating the intestines; carthartic.

PURG'A-TIVE, n.

A medicine that ovacuates the intestines; a carthartic.

PURG'A-TIVE-LY, adv.

Cleansingly; cathartically.

PURG-A-TO'RI-AL, or PURG-A-TO'RI-AN, a.

Pertaining to purgatory. – Mede.