Puritan Hear it!

Puritan Definition

Pu·ri·tan (pyo̵ori tən)

noun

  1. any member of a Protestant group in England and the American colonies that in the 16th and 17th cent., wanted to make the Church of England simpler in its services and stricter about morals
  2. a person regarded as excessively strict in morals and religion

Etymology: < LL puritas (see purity) + -an

adjective

  1. of the Puritans or Puritanism
  2. puritanical

Puritan Related Forms

Pu·ri·tan·ism′ noun or pu·ri·tan·ism′

puritan Synonyms

puritan

modif.

Puritan Usage Examples

Converse of object

please: The hero visits this church, which he finds " plain enough and bare enough to please a puritan " .

Adjective modifier

  • new: One Response to " The new puritans " romy Says: February 23rd, 2005 at 12:22 am the funny ( ?
  • 17th: Once, the windows were full of stained glass images of Saints, but they were all destroyed, probably by 17th century puritans.
  • great: On religious matters between the founder of the Friends and the great Puritan there was a deep division.
  • old: The old puritan said: ' Crosses and losses are to be expected ' .
  • rigid: To be considered thriller and feels that rigid puritan.
  • radical: This is to emphasize their status as the allies and patrons of local cadres of godly Protestant fundamentalists; in common parlance radical puritans.

Modifies a noun

  • ethic: The repression of sexuality leads to a puritan ethics.
  • community: However, any association with Rome was totally unacceptable to the growing puritan community.
  • disgust: Puritan disgust with whole new legs trigger the most.
  • preacher: He was probably, however, the first puritan preacher in Wales.
  • divine: John Brinsley, a puritan divine and educational writer, was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge.
  • minister: Puritan ministers visited both Savage and Butler in the condemned cells in the run up to their hangings.

Modifying Another Word

  • strongly: In 1577, the year that prophesyings were suppressed by the Privy Council, the strongly puritan William Jennings was appointed vicar.
  • almost: Yet David Hillman also bequeathed his sons an almost Puritan sense of duty.
  • positively: Labor makes the Tories 18 years in government look positively puritan.

Noun used with modifier

century: How the 18th century puritans who furnished this place would be appalled!

Preposition: of

century: Much evidence of it survives in Suffolk, and it is almost always blamed on the puritans of a century later.

Browse dictionary entries near Puritan

  1. purist
  2. purism
  3. purine
  4. Purim
  5. purify
  6. purificator
  7. purification
  8. puri
  9. purge(ing) contempt
  10. purge
  1. Puritan ethic
  2. puritanical
  3. puritanism
  4. purity
  5. Purkinje cell
  6. Purkinje fiber
  7. purl
  8. purlieu
  9. purlin
  10. purloin