Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for IM-PURE'ESS, or IM-PU'RI-TY
IM-PURE'ESS, or IM-PU'RI-TY, n. [Fr. impureté; L. impuritas, supra.]
- Want of purity; foulness; feculence; the admixture of a foreign substance in any thing; as, the impurity of water, of air, of spirits, or of any species of earth or metal.
- Any foul matter.
- Unchastity; lewdness. The foul impurities that reigned among the monkish clergy. Atterbury.
- Want of sanctity or holiness; defilement by guilt.
- Want of ceremonial purity; legal pollution or uncleanness. By the Mosaic law, a person contracted impurity by touching a dead body or a leper.
- Foul language; obscenity. Profaneness, impurity, or scandal, is not wit. Buckminster.
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