[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