cleanse

[klenz]

verb (used with object)

cleansed, cleansing 

1. to make clean.

2. to remove by or as if by cleaning.

   to cleanse sin from the soul.

verb (used without object)

cleansed, cleansing 

1. to become clean.

cleanse

/ klɛnz /

verb

1. to remove dirt, filth, etc, from

2. to remove guilt from

3. to remove a group of people from (an area) by means of ethnic cleansing

Other Word Forms

• cleansable adjective
• recleanse verb (used with object)
• uncleansable adjective
• uncleansed adjective
• well-cleansed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of cleanse¹

before 900; Middle English clensen, Old English clǣnsian, equivalent to clǣne clean + -si- v. suffix + -an infinitive suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of cleanse¹

Old English clǣnsian; related to Middle Low German klēnsen; see _clean

Synonym Study

See clean.

Example Sentences

Grief, too, steers us, a cleansing ritual, as I recall each time my wife and I meander beneath Green-Wood’s leafy canopy, parakeets swooping and chattering overhead, or sit quietly in its hushed chapel.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

It’s a feel-good story that helps cleanse the palate weeks after another viral incident took place in the stands at a game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Miami Marlins in Florida.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Nothing, he said, could justify their collective punishment, starvation or any form of ethnic cleansing.

Read more on BBC

“This type of garbage about ICE and Border Patrol agents engaging in an ‘ethnic cleansing,’ and racial profiling vilifies our law enforcement.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But the UN and other international organizations have also documented a systematic RSF policy of ethnic cleansing against non-Arab communities in the territory they conquer.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• disinfect 
• purge 
• restore 
• sanitize