Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PU'RI-FY, v.t. [Fr. purifier; L. purifico; purus, pure, and facio, to make.]

1. To make pure or clear; to free from extraneous admixture; as, to purify liquors or metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air.
2. To free from pollution ceremonially; to remove whatever renders unclean and unfit for sacred services. Purify yourselves and your captives on the third day, and on the seventh day purify all your raiment. – Num. xxxi.
3. To free from guilt or the defilement of sin; as, to purify the heart. Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. – Tit. ii.
4. To clear from improprieties or barbarisms; as, to purify a language. – Sprat.