[syn: cleansing, purifying]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Cleanse \Cleanse\ (kl[e^]nz), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Cleansed
(kl[e^]nzd); p. pr. & vb. n. Cleansing.] [AS. cl[=ae]nsian,
fr. cl[=ae]ne clean. See Clean.]
To render clean; to free from fith, pollution, infection,
guilt, etc.; to clean.
[1913 Webster]
If we walk in the light . . . the blood of Jesus Christ
his son cleanseth us from all sin. --1 John i. 7.
[1913 Webster]
Can'st thou not minister to a mind diseased,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the suffed bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart? --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
cleansing
adj 1: cleansing the body by washing; especially ritual washing
of e.g. hands; "ablutionary rituals" [syn: ablutionary,
cleansing]
2: acting like an antiseptic [syn: cleansing, purifying]
n 1: the act of making something clean; "he gave his shoes a
good cleaning" [syn: cleaning, cleansing, cleanup]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
87 Moby Thesaurus words for "cleansing":
abstergent, abstersion, alleviating, alleviative, analgesic,
anesthetic, anodyne, apologetic, ascetic, assuasive, atoning,
balmy, balsamic, benumbing, bowdlerization, catharsis, cathartic,
cleaning, compensational, compensatory, deadening, deliverance,
demulcent, depurative, detergent, detersion, discharge, diuretic,
dry cleaning, dulling, easing, emetic, emollient,
emotional release, expiatory, expurgation, expurgatory, freeing,
intermission, lenitive, lustral, lustration, lustrational,
lustrative, mitigating, mitigative, numbing, pain-killing,
palliative, penitential, piacular, propitiatory, purgation,
purgative, purgatorial, purge, purging, purification, purificatory,
purifying, reclamatory, recompensing, redeeming, redemptive,
redressing, release, relieving, remedial, removal, reparative,
reparatory, repentant, repenting, reprieve, respite, restitutional,
restitutive, restitutory, righting, satisfactional, softening,
soothing, squaring, steam cleaning, subduing, surcease,
suspension