purge

From Middle English purgen, from Old French purgier, from Latin pūrgō (“I make pure, I cleanse”), from pūrus (“clean, pure”) + agō (“I make, I do”).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /pɝd͡ʒ/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɜːd͡ʒ/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)d͡ʒ

purge (plural purges)

1. An act of purging.
2. (medicine) An evacuation of the bowels or a vomiting.
3. A cleansing of pipes.
4. A forcible removal of people, for example, from political activity.

   Stalin liked to ensure that his purges were not reversible.

   • 1971, Lyndon Johnson, “"I feel like I have already been here a year"”, in The Vantage Point‎^[1], Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 24:

     One of the few surviving Bolsheviks with real power, Mikoyan had been brought to Moscow by Stalin in 1926, had escaped innumerable purges, and had demonstrated an uncanny ability to survive and to associate himself with the right faction at the right time.

5. That which purges; especially, a medicine that evacuates the intestines; a cathartic.
   • 1722, John Arbuthnot, Mr. Maitland’s account of inoculating the small-pox:

     he prescribes a Purge or a Vomit

• Great Purge

purge (third-person singular simple present purges, present participle purging, simple past and past participle purged)

1. (transitive) To clean thoroughly; to cleanse; to rid of impurities.
2. (transitive, religion) To free from sin, guilt, or the burden or responsibility of misdeeds.
3. (transitive) To remove by cleansing; to wash away.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 79:9:

     Purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.

   • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene ii, page 1:

     We'll join our cares to purge away / Our country’s crimes.

4. (transitive, intransitive, medicine) To void or evacuate (the bowels or the stomach); to defecate or vomit.
5. (transitive, medicine) To cause someone to purge, operate on (somebody) as or with a cathartic or emetic, or in a similar manner.
   • 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred:

     "What did they die of?” I asked.
     "Fevers. The doctor came and bled them and purged them, but they still died."
     "He bled and purged babies?"
     "They were two and three. He said it would break the fever. And it did. But they … they died anyway."

6. (transitive, of a person) To forcibly remove, e.g., from political activity.

   Deng Xiaoping was purged twice during the Cultural Revolution, but managed to return to power after Mao's death.

7. (transitive, of an organization, by extension) To forcibly remove people from.

   Cromwell had Colonel Pride purge Parliament of royalists who opposed Charles I's execution.

8. (transitive, law) To clear of a charge, suspicion, or imputation.
9. (transitive) To clarify; to clear the dregs from (liquor).
10. (intransitive) To become pure, as by clarification.
11. (intransitive) To have or produce frequent evacuations from the intestines, as by means of a cathartic.
12. (transitive) To trim, dress, or prune.

• Grupe, repug

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purge f (plural purges)

1. purge

purge

1. inflection of purger:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

• “purge”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

purge

1. Alternative form of purgen

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

purge f (plural purges)

1. (Jersey) purgative