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3 definitions found
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Pure \Pure\, adjective [Compar. {Purer}; superl. {Purest}.] [OE. pur, F. pur, fr. L. purus; akin to putus pure, clear, putare to clean, trim, prune, set in order, settle, reckon, consider, think, Skr. p? to clean, and perh. E. fire. Cf. {Putative}.]
1. Separate from all heterogeneous or extraneous matter; free from mixture or combination; clean; mere; simple; unmixed; as, pure water; pure clay; pure air; pure compassion.
The pure fetters on his shins great. --Chaucer.
A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy. --I. Watts.
2. Free from moral defilement or quilt; hence, innocent; guileless; chaste; -- applied to persons. ''Keep thyself pure.'' --1 Tim. v. 22.
Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience. --1 Tim. i. 5.
3. Free from that which harms, vitiates, weakens, or pollutes; genuine; real; perfect; -- applied to things and actions. ''Pure religion and impartial laws.'' --Tickell. ''The pure, fine talk of Rome.'' --Ascham.
Such was the origin of a friendship as warm and pure as any that ancient or modern history records. --Macaulay.
4. (Script.) Ritually clean; fitted for holy services.
Thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the Lord. --Lev. xxiv. 6.
5. (Phonetics) Of a single, simple sound or tone; -- said of some vowels and the unaspirated consonants.
{Pure-impure}, completely or totally impure. ''The inhabitants were pure-impure pagans.'' --Fuller.
{Pure blue}. (Chem.) See {Methylene blue}, under {Methylene}.
{Pure chemistry}. See under {Chemistry}.
{Pure mathematics}, that portion of mathematics which treats of the principles of the science, or contradistinction to applied mathematics, which treats of the application of the principles to the investigation of other branches of knowledge, or to the practical wants of life. See {Mathematics}. --Davies & Peck (Math. Dict. )
{Pure villenage} (Feudal Law), a tenure of lands by uncertain services at the will of the lord. --Blackstone.
Syn: Unmixed; clear; simple; real; true; genuine; unadulterated; uncorrupted; unsullied; untarnished; unstained; stainless; clean; fair; unspotted; spotless; incorrupt; chaste; unpolluted; undefiled; immaculate; innocent; guiltless; guileless; holy.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
pure
adjective
1: free of extraneous elements of any kind; "pure air and water"; "pure gold"; "pure primary colors"; "the violin's pure and lovely song"; "pure tones" [ant: {impure}]
2: without qualification; used informally as (often pejorative) intensifiers; "an arrant fool"; "a complete coward"; "a consummate fool"; "a double-dyed villain"; "gross negligence"; "a perfect idiot"; "pure folly"; "what a sodding mess"; "stark staring mad"; "a thoroughgoing villain"; "utter nonsense" [syn: {arrant(a)}, {complete(a)}, {consummate(a)}, {double-dyed(a)}, {everlasting(a)}, {gross(a)}, {perfect(a)}, {pure(a)}, {sodding(a)}, {stark(a)}, {staring(a)}, {thoroughgoing(a)}, {utter(a)}]
3: concerned with theory and data rather than practice; opposed to applied; "pure science"
4: (of color) being chromatically pure; not diluted with white or gray or black [syn: {saturated}] [ant: {unsaturated}]
5: free from discordant qualities
6: used of persons or behaviors; having no faults; sinless; "I felt pure and sweet as a new baby"- Sylvia Plath; "pure as the driven snow" [ant: {impure}]
7: in a state of sexual virginity; "pure and vestal modesty"; "a spinster or virgin lady"; "men have decreed that their women must be pure and virginal" [syn: {vestal}, {virgin}, {virginal}, {virtuous}]
8: not mixed; "pure oxygen" [syn: {unmixed}, {undiluted}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
365 Moby Thesaurus words for "pure": Attic, Christian, Christlike, Christly, Ciceronian, God-fearing, Spartan, above suspicion, absolute, abstract, academical, aesthetic, all-embracing, all-encompassing, all-out, all-pervading, angelic, antiseptic, artistic, ascetic, austere, authentic, bald, bare, basic, beyond all praise, blameless, blasted, bleached, blessed, blotless, bona fide, born, bright, broad-based, candid, card-carrying, chaste, choice, classic, classical, clean, cleanly, clear, common, commonplace, complete, comprehensive, conceptual, confounded, congenital, conjectural, consummate, correct, creditable, dainty, decent, decorous, deep-dyed, defectless, dinkum, direct, dirt-free, disinfected, downright, dry, dull, dyed-in-the-wool, easy, egregious, elegant, elementary, erect, essential, estimable, ethical, everyday, excellent, exemplary, exhaustive, fair, fastidious, faultless, finished, flawless, following the letter, frank, fresh, full of integrity, fundamental, garden, garden-variety, genuine, godlike, godly, godly-minded, good, graceful, gracile, gross, guileless, guiltless, heavenly, high-minded, high-principled, highly respectable, holy, holy-minded, homely, homespun, homogeneous, honest, honest-to-God, honorable, household, hypothetical, ideal, immaculate, impeccable, in good taste, inartificial, inculpable, indefectible, indefective, indivisible, infallible, infernal, innocent, intact, intensive, inviolate, irreducible, irreproachable, just, just right, kosher, law-abiding, law-loving, law-revering, lawful, lean, legitimate, lifelike, limpid, literal, lucid, maidenly, manly, matter-of-fact, mere, modest, monolithic, moral, natural, naturalistic, neat, noble, nondescript, nonpolluted, notional, of a piece, of choice, of cleanly habits, of quality, omnibus, omnipresent, open, ordinary, original, otherworldly, out-and-out, outright, pasteurized, peerless, pellucid, perfect, perspicuous, pervasive, philosophical, pious, plain, plain-speaking, plain-spoken, pleasing, plenary, plumb, polished, primal, primary, principled, proper, prosaic, prosing, prosy, pure and simple, pure in heart, purehearted, quiet, quintessential, radical, real, realistic, refined, regular, reputable, respectable, restrained, right, right-minded, righteous, rightful, ritually pure, round, rustic, saintlike, saintly, sanitary, seraphic, severe, sexually innocent, sheer, shiny, simon-pure, simple, simple-speaking, sincere, single, sinless, smut-free, smutless, snowy, sober, solid, spare, speculative, spiritual, spiritual-minded, spotless, stainless, stark, sterile, sterilized, sterling, straight, straightforward, subdued, sure-enough, sweeping, sweet, tahar, taintless, tasteful, terse, theoretical, thorough, thoroughgoing, through-and-through, total, trim, true, true to life, true to nature, true to reality, true-dealing, true-devoted, true-disposing, true-souled, true-spirited, truehearted, tubbed, ubiquitous, unadorned, unadulterated, unaffected, unalloyed, unassumed, unassuming, unbesmirched, unblamable, unblemished, unblotted, uncluttered, uncolored, unconcocted, unconditional, uncontaminated, uncopied, uncorrupt, uncorrupted, uncounterfeited, undefiled, understated, undifferenced, undifferentiated, undiluted, undisguised, undisguising, undistorted, unearthly, unexaggerated, unfabricated, unfanciful, unfaultable, unfeigned, unfeigning, unfictitious, unflattering, uniform, unimaginative, unimagined, unimitated, unimpeachable, uninvented, universal, unlabored, unmitigated, unmixed, unmuddied, unobtrusive, unpoetical, unpolluted, unpretended, unpretending, unqualified, unreserved, unrestricted, unromantic, unsimulated, unsmirched, unsmudged, unsoiled, unspecious, unspotted, unstained, unsullied, unsynthetic, untainted, untarnished, unvarnished, unworldly, upright, uprighteous, upstanding, utter, verbal, verbatim, veridical, verisimilar, veritable, vestal, virgin, virginal, virtuous, well-chosen, well-scrubbed, well-washed, white, whitened, wholesale, wholesome, word-for-word, workaday, workday, worthy, yeomanly
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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. Audio provided by one of our generous visitors. - KM |