purge

From Middle English purgen, from Old French purgier, from Latin pūrgō (“I make pure, I cleanse”), from pūrus (“clean, pure”) + agō (“I make, I do”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɜːd͡ʒ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɜɹd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒ

purge (third-person singular simple present purges, present participle purging, simple past and past participle purged)

1. (transitive) To clean thoroughly; to rid of impurities; to cleanse.
2. (transitive) To remove by cleansing; to wash away.
3. (transitive) To free from sin, guilt, or burden.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 79:9:

     Purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 1:

     We'll join our cares to purge away / Our country’s crimes.

4. (transitive, intransitive, medicine) To evacuate (the bowels or the stomach); to defecate or vomit.
5. (transitive, medicine) To cause someone to purge; to operate (on somebody) using a cathartic or emetic, or in a similar manner.
   • 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred:

     "What did they die of?” I asked. / "Fevers. The doctor came and bled them and purged them, but they still died." / "He bled and purged babies?" / "They were two and three. He said it would break the fever. And it did. But they … they died anyway."

6. (transitive) To forcibly remove, for example, from political activity.

   Deng Xiaoping was purged twice during the Cultural Revolution, but managed to return to power after Mao's death.

7. (transitive) To forcibly remove people by an organization.

   Cromwell had Colonel Pride purge Parliament of royalists who opposed Charles I's execution.

   • 1957 October 20, Roy Bedichek, “to John Henry Faulk”, in Letters of Roy Bedichek, Austin, T.X.: University of Texas Press, published 1985, →ISBN, page 507:

     Late triumphs of Russian science are scaring the very dogwater out of large elements in our society, and we both fear more "purging" instead of more effort at catching up.

8. (transitive, law) To clear of a charge, suspicion, or imputation.
9. (transitive) To clarify; to clear the dregs from (liquor).
10. (intransitive) To become pure, as by clarification.
11. (intransitive) To have or produce frequent evacuations from the intestines, as by means of a cathartic.
12. (transitive) To trim, dress, or prune.

purge (plural purges)

1. An act or instance of purging.
2. (medicine) An evacuation of the bowels or the stomach; a defecation or vomiting.
3. Something which or someone who purges; especially, a medicine that evacuates the intestines; a cathartic.
   • 1722, John Arbuthnot, Mr. Maitland’s account of inoculating the small-pox:

     he prescribes a Purge or a Vomit

4. A forcible removal of people, for example, from political activity.

   Stalin liked to ensure that his purges were not reversible.

   • 1971, Lyndon Johnson, “"I feel like I have already been here a year"”, in The Vantage Point‎^[1], Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 24:

     One of the few surviving Bolsheviks with real power, Mikoyan had been brought to Moscow by Stalin in 1926, had escaped innumerable purges, and had demonstrated an uncanny ability to survive and to associate himself with the right faction at the right time.

5. An act or instance of the cleansing of pipes.
6. A red or reddish liquid that seeps out from raw muscular meat consisting mostly of water and protein; "meat juice".

   Synonym: weep

• Great Purge

• Grupe, repug

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purge f (plural purges)

1. purge

purge

1. inflection of purger:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “purge”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

purge

1. alternative form of purgen

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

purge f (plural purges)

1. (Jersey) purgative