cleanse

From Old English clǣnsian, from West Proto-Germanic *klainisōną, from *klainiz (“clean”). Cognate with archaic Dutch kleinzen (“to clean; to purify”).

• IPA^(key): /klɛnz/

cleanse (third-person singular simple present cleanses, present participle cleansing, simple past and past participle cleansed)

1. (transitive) To free from dirt; to clean, purify.
   • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

     An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

2. (transitive) To spiritually purify; to free from sin or guilt; to purge.

cleanse (plural cleanses)

1. An act of cleansing; a purification.

   I regularly visit the spa for a massage and a facial cleanse.

   Synonym: cleansing

• Senecal, canelés, elances, enlaces, enscale, scalene