From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Purify \Pu"ri*fy\ (p[=u]"r[i^]*f[imac]), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Purified} (p[=u]"r[i^]*f[imac]d); p. pr. & vb. n. {Purifying} (p[=u]"r[i^]*f[imac]"[i^]ng).] [F. purifier, L. purificare; purus pure + -ficare (in comp.) to make. See {Pure}, and {-fy}.]
1. To make pure or clear from material defilement, admixture, or imperfection; to free from extraneous or noxious matter; as, to purify liquors or metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air.
2. Hence, in figurative uses: (a) To free from guilt or moral defilement; as, to purify the heart.
And fit them so Purified to receive him pure. --Milton. (b) To free from ceremonial or legal defilement.
And Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar, . . . and purified the altar. --Lev. viii. 15.
Purify both yourselves and your captives. -- Num. xxxi. 19. (c) To free from improprieties or barbarisms; as, to purify a language. --Sprat.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
adjective
1: serving to purge or rid of sin; "purgatorial rites" [syn: {purgatorial}, {purging}]
2: freeing from noxious matter; "filtration is a purifying agent" [ant: {adulterating}]
3: acting like an antiseptic [syn: {cleansing}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
40 Moby Thesaurus words for "purifying": abstergent, apologetic, ascetic, atoning, cathartic, cleaning, cleansing, compensational, compensatory, depurative, detergent, diuretic, emetic, expiatory, expurgatory, lustral, lustrational, lustrative, penitential, piacular, propitiatory, purgative, purgatorial, purging, purificatory, reclamatory, recompensing, redeeming, redemptive, redressing, reparative, reparatory, repentant, repenting, restitutional, restitutive, restitutory, righting, satisfactional, squaring
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