cleanse

verbnounattested in dialogue

//klɛnz//

To free from dirt; to clean, to purify.

verb

1
To free from dirt; to clean, to purify.
An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.
2
To spiritually purify; to free from guilt or sin; to purge.
[T]he famous Ganges: whoſe vnknowne head, pleaſant ſtreames, and long extent, haue amongſt thoſe Heathen Inhabitants, (by the Tradition of their Forefathers) gained a beliefe of clenſing all ſuch ſinnes, as the bodies of thoſe that waſh therein brought with them: [...]
3
To remove (something seen as unpleasant) from a person, place, or thing.

Etymology

From Middle English clensen, from Old English clǣnsian, from Proto-West Germanic *klainisōn, from Proto-West Germanic *klainī (“clean”). Cognate with West Frisian klinzgje (“to clean, cleanse”), archaic Dutch kleinzen (“to clean, purify”), Middle Low German klênsen, kleinsen, clensen (“to purify”).

noun

1
An act of cleansing; a purification.
I regularly visit the spa for a massage and a facial cleanse.

Forms

plural: cleanses
past tense: cleansed
past participle: cleansed
present participle: cleansing
third person singular: cleanses

cleaner · A person whose occupation is to clean things, especially…cleaners · A professional laundry or dry cleaner.cleaning · The process of making something clean; a freeing from filth…

cleanse · To free from dirt; to clean, to purify.

cleansing · That cleanses.cleanup · The act of cleaning or tidying something.clear · Transparent in colour.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.