cleanse
part of speech
verb (cleanse, cleanses, cleansed, cleansing)
meaning for a pupil
1) To clean something thoroughly, especially skin or a wound: «Cleanse the cut with water.» tree →
2) To make someone or something pure, free from sin or guilt (church, Bible): «Cleanse me from my sin.» tree →
3) To remove harmful or unwanted things: «cleanse the air». tree →
4) (history) «Ethnic cleansing» means driving out or killing a whole group of people because of who they are — a terrible crime. tree →
sense in the lessons
In health and first aid, you cleanse a wound to stop germs. In adverts «cleanser» is soap for the face. In church and the Bible, Christians believe God can cleanse people from sin; Psalm 51 asks «cleanse me from my sin». In history lessons «ethnic cleansing» is a grave crime against humanity.
examples
- Cleanse the scratch with clean water before putting on a plaster. tree →
- Mum uses a face cleanser every night. tree →
- «Wash me and cleanse me from my sin,» says the psalm. tree →
- The rain seemed to cleanse the dusty city. tree →
- The nurse cleansed the wound carefully. tree →
- Christians believe that God's forgiveness cleanses the heart. tree →
- Then the hall was cleansed and the banquet recommenced. tree →
note
Say «klenz»: the «ea» sounds like the «e» in «bed», not like «clean». Formal or medical; everyday word: clean, wash. Noun: cleanser.
In the corpora
- And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar-wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.
- 'Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them.
- Then washed I thee with water; yea, I cleansed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil.
- And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
- Thus shall they cleanse the land.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «cleanse» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.