cleansing
part of speech
noun (cleansing); verb, -ing form of cleanse (cleanse, cleanses, cleansed, cleansing); adjective (cleansing)
meaning for a pupil
1) Making something very clean, especially skin or a wound: cleansing a cut. tree →
2) (adjective) Used for cleaning: cleansing wipes, cleansing lotion. tree →
3) (formal) Getting rid of something bad or unwanted, including feelings: a cleansing cry. tree →
4) (euphemism) Ethnic cleansing: a horrible crime where people are forced out or killed because of their group. tree →
sense in the lessons
In first aid, cleansing a wound with clean water stops germs. In everyday life cleansing products are for washing the face. In history lessons "ethnic cleansing" is a soft-sounding phrase hiding a terrible crime. Phrases: cleansing wipe, face cleanser, cleansing breath.
examples
- Start by cleansing the cut with clean water. tree →
- Mum uses a cleansing lotion on her face. tree →
- The nurse was cleansing the wound before putting on a plaster. tree →
- Fresh air felt cleansing after the stuffy classroom. tree →
- (euphemism) Ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity, though the words sound clean. tree →
- Cleansing wipes are handy on a camping trip. tree →
- But cleansing his feathers as often as he would, he could not change their color, while through want of food he perished. tree →
note
Verb cleanse (say "klenz") is more formal than clean; cleansing drops the e. The product is a cleanser. Watch out for euphemisms that make cruel things sound neat.
In the corpora
- But if the scall spread abroad in the skin after his cleansing,
- This shall be the law of the leper in the day of his cleansing: he shall be brought unto the priest.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «cleansing» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.