exorcise

ex·or·cise

or ex′or·cize·

transitive verb

-·cised· or -·cized·, -·cis·ing or -·ciz·ing

to drive (an evil spirit or spirits) out or away by ritual prayers, incantations, etc.
Rare to adjure (such a spirit or spirits)
to free from such a spirit or spirits

Origin of exorcise

Middle English exorcisen from Ecclesiastical Late Latin exorcizare from Classical Greek exorkizein, to swear a person (in New Testament , to banish an evil spirit) from ex-, out + horkizein, to make one swear from horkos, an oath, akin to horkan?, enclosure, herkos, fence, probably from Indo-European base an unverified form ser-, wickerwork from source Classical Latin sarcire, to patch

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"exorcise." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 15 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/exorcise>.

APA Style

exorcise. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/exorcise

exorcise

transitive verb

ex·or·cised, ex·or·cis·ing, ex·or·cis·es

a. To expel (an evil spirit), as by incantation, command, or prayer.
b. To eliminate or suppress (a malign influence or negative feeling, for example): “the man most Americans now loved to like as they exorcised the defeatist spirit of the 1960s” ( Gil Troy )
To free from or rid of an evil spirit, malign influence, or other harmful factor: “Kaiser Wilhelm II's puritanical wife … sent her personal chaplain to exorcise the palace rooms Leopold had been staying in” ( Adam Hochschild )

Origin of exorcise

Middle English exorcisen from Late Latin exorcizāre from Greek exorkizein ex- out of ; see exo- . horkizein to make one swear ( from horkos oath )

Related Forms:

ex′or·cis′er
noun

THE AMERICAN HERITAGE® DICTIONARY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, FIFTH EDITION by the Editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries. Copyright © 2016, 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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MLA Style

"exorcise." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 15 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/exorcise>.

APA Style

exorcise. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/exorcise

Verb

(third-person singular simple present exorcises, present participle exorcising, simple past and past participle exorcised)

To drive out an evil spirit from a person, place or thing, especially by an incantation or prayer
To rid a person, place or thing of an evil spirit

Usage notes

Unlike most verbs using the -ise/-ize suffix, exorcise is more commonly spelled with -s- even in American English.

Origin

From Old French exorciser, from Late Latin exorcizāre, from Ancient Greek ἐξορκίζειν (eksorkizein, “banish an evil spirit; bind by oath”).

See also: exorcisé

English Wiktionary. Available under CC-BY-SA license.

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Link to this page

Cite this page

MLA Style

"exorcise." YourDictionary, n.d. Web. 15 January 2019. <https://www.yourdictionary.com/exorcise>.

APA Style

exorcise. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15th, 2019, from https://www.yourdictionary.com/exorcise

exorcise

exorcise

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