From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Puritanic \Pu'ri*tan"ic\, Puritanical \Pu'ri*tan"ic*al\, adjective
1. Of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.
2. Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid; -- often used by way of reproach or contempt.
Paritanical circles, from which plays and novels were strictly excluded. --Macaulay.
He had all the puritanic traits, both good and evil. --Hawthorne.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
puritanical
adjective
1: of or relating to Puritans or Puritanism
2: exaggeratedly proper; "my straitlaced Aunt Anna doesn't approve of my miniskirts" [syn: {priggish}, {prim}, {prissy}, {prudish}, {square-toed}, {straitlaced}, {strait-laced}, {straightlaced}, {straight-laced}, {tight-laced}, {victorian}]
3: morally rigorous and strict; "blue laws"; "the puritan work ethic"; "puritanic distaste for alcohol"; "she was anything but puritanical in her behavior" [syn: {blue(a)}, {puritan}, {puritanic}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
93 Moby Thesaurus words for "puritanical": Albigensian, Catharist, Franciscan, Quakerish, Sabbatarian, Trappist, Victorian, Waldensian, abstinent, anchoritic, ascetic, austere, bigoted, censorious, choicy, choosy, conscientious, creedbound, critical, demure, discriminating, discriminative, dogmatic, dour, eremitic, evangelical, exacting, fastidious, firm, flagellant, fundamentalist, hard, hidebound, hyperorthodox, impliable, inexorable, inflexible, iron, ironbound, ironclad, ironhanded, literalist, literalistic, mendicant, meticulous, mid-Victorian, muscle-bound, narrow, obdurate, obstinate, old-maidish, orthodox, overmodest, particular, perfectionistic, picky, precise, precisianist, precisianistic, priggish, prim, procrustean, prudish, punctilious, purist, puristic, puritan, puritanic, relentless, rigid, rigorist, rigoristic, rigorous, rockbound, sanctimonious, scrupulous, selective, self-denying, sensitive, smug, staunch, stiff, stiff-necked, straightlaced, straitlaced, strict, stubborn, stuffy, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, wedded to poverty
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