purge
part of speech
verb (purge, purges, purged, purging); noun (a purge, purges)
meaning for a pupil
1) To get rid of people, things or ideas that are not wanted, often harshly: «The ruler purged his enemies from the army.» tree →
2) (history) A purge: a time when a government or leader removes or punishes lots of people, sometimes killing them, as in the purges under Stalin. tree →
3) To clean out completely: «purge the pipes», «purge old files from the computer». tree →
4) (church) To make free from sin or guilt; to cleanse the soul. tree →
5) (old, medicine) To empty the bowels with strong medicine. tree →
sense in the lessons
In history lessons it describes cruel removals of people by dictators; in computing and everyday life it means a big clear-out; in religion it means cleansing from sin. Phrases: «purge of», «a political purge», «purge the system».
examples
- In the 1930s Stalin's purges killed and imprisoned huge numbers of people. tree →
- I purged all the old photos from my tablet. tree →
- The plumber purged the air from the radiators. tree →
- The new king purged the palace of his brother's friends. tree →
- In the story, the hero tried to purge his guilt by helping others. tree →
- Mum had a big purge of the toy cupboard. tree →
- Mansion, who has purged it of many errors without detracting from its old-fashioned quality. tree →
note
Countable noun: a purge, purges. Related: purgatory (in Catholic belief, a state of cleansing after death), purification. In history, «purge» usually means something violent and unjust; in a tidy-up it is light.
In the corpora
- Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
- And he burnt the bones of the priests upon their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «purge» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.