| 释义 |
▪ I. pure, a. (n., adv.)|pjʊə(r)|
Forms: 3–5 pur, 4– pure. (Also 4 puȝr, por(e, 4 (6 Sc.) puyr(e, puir(e, 5 poure, 5–6 pewr(e, 9 pewer; 5–6, 9– puer, 6 peur.)
[a. OF. pur, fem. pure (12th c. in Littré), = Pr. pur, Sp., It. puro:—L. pūru-s clean, clear, unmixed, pure, chaste, etc.]
A. adj.
I. In physical sense.
1. a. Not mixed with anything else; free from admixture or adulteration; unmixed, unalloyed; often qualifying names of colours. b. esp. Not mixed with, or not having in or upon it, anything that defiles, corrupts, or impairs; unsullied, untainted, clean. c. Visibly or optically clear, spotless, stainless; in quots. 1481, 1652, clear, transparent. Rarely const. from.
(There is a wide range of sense here, but lines of division cannot well be drawn among the quotations, many of which unite more than one shade of meaning.)
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 184 So clene is al so þat lond & mannes blod so pur [v.rr. puir, pure]. Ibid. 3178 O cler leom wiþoute mo þer stod fram him wel pur. c1300St. Brandan 313 Caliz and cruetz, pur cler crestal. 13..E.E. Allit. P. A. 227 So was hit clene & cler & pure, Þat precios perle þer hit was pyȝt. 1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iv. 82 A present al of pure Red gold. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xiii. ii. (Bodl. MS.), To make pitte water clene and pure. 1481Caxton Myrr. iii. vi. 140 The mone is not so pure that the sonne may shyne..thurgh her as thurgh an other sterre. 1590Spenser F.Q. ii. vii. 15 At the well-head the purest streames arise. 1638Junius Paint. Ancients 42 To have his minde..like unto a pure, bright looking-glasse. 1652Gaule Magastrom. 7 One reads them with the pure glass of Gods word: the other by his own false and fallacious perspicils. 1750Gray Elegy 53 Full many a gem of purest ray serene, The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear. 1784Cowper Task ii. 508 To filter off a crystal draught Pure from the lees. 1797Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3) XVI. 33/1 There can be but one proper species of red;..all other shades being adulterations of that pure colour, with yellow, brown, &c. 1800tr. Lagrange's Chem. II. 308 If alcohol be re-distilled, and reduced to two-thirds, you will obtain it very pure. This is what is called Rectified Alcohol. 1804J. Grahame Sabbath 42 The morning air pure from the city's smoke. 1839Ure Dict. Arts 414 A mixture of prussian blue and cochineal pink..in preference to a pure blue. 1853W. Gregory Inorg. Chem. (ed. 3) 74 In consequence of the great solvent power of water, it is never found pure in nature. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxv. 187 The snow was of the purest white.
†d. Intact, unbroken, perfect, entire. Obs. rare.
1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 716 Twenty of these hornes pure, and so many broken.
e. Of a musical sound or voice: Free from roughness, harshness, or discordant quality; smooth, clear: spec. in Mus. and Acoustics, said of tones that are perfectly in tune, i.e. whose vibration-ratios are mathematically exact, so as to give no beats: esp. as opp. to tempered. pure tone, a tone composed of a single frequency and represented by a sine wave (earlier called a simple tone).
1872F. Jacox Aspects Authorship iii. 44 The pure and most tuneful voice of Miss Clara Novello. 1873Hale In His Name vi. 49 The voice was a perfectly clear and pure tenor. 1889J. Lecky in Grove Dict. Mus. IV. 70/2 If..all the consonant intervals are made perfectly smooth and pure, so as to give no beats, the tuning is then called Just Intonation. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 751/2 Considerable difference of opinion exists as to whether beats can blend so as to give a sensation of tone; but König, by using very pure tones of high pitch, appears to have settled the question. 1929H. Fletcher Speech & Hearing iv. 167 The masking effect of one pure tone by another was determined. 1961Lancet 22 July 197/2 Pure-tone audiometry is only one item in a whole range of tests that are needed to build up a complete picture of the condition of a patient who has a hearing-loss. 1976L. H. Schaudinischky Sound, Man & Building i. 30 The beat grows progressively lower and vanishes altogether when f1 = f2. This gives rise to a method of extremely accurately determining the unknown frequency of a pure tone with the aid of the calibrated output of a sine-wave generator by simply listening in.
f. Forestry. Of a wood or plantation; consisting of trees of only one species.
1889W. Schlich Man. Forestry I. ii. iii. 177 Such woods may be composed of one species only, or they may contain a mixture of two or more species; in the former case they are called ‘pure woods’, and in the latter ‘mixed woods’. 1927Forestry I. 11 This century saw the return in an increasing degree to pure rather than mixed coniferous stands. 1948Misc. Publ. Univ. Michigan Mus. Zool. LXVIII. 16 The creosote bush, usually in pure stands, covers great expanses of the broad desert basins. 1976H. L. Edlin Nat. Hist. Trees v. 64 The plantations just described are examples of more or less even-aged stands of a single species, also called a pure even-aged forest.
II. In non-physical or general sense.
2. a. Without foreign or extraneous admixture: free from anything not properly pertaining to it; simple, homogeneous, unmixed, unalloyed.
pure naturals: see natural n. 5.
1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 166 Þere nys neyther..Pope, ne patriarch þat puyre reson ne schal make Þe meyster of alle þo men. 1487in Surrey Archæol. Soc. Collect. III. 163, I Elizabeth Uvedale..in my pure widowhood make and ordain my will. 1614Purchas Pilgrimage i. ix. (ed. 2) 47 In the time of Elisa or Dido, the Phænicean or Punike, which she carried into Africa, was pure Hebrew, as were also their letters. 1642Answ. Observ. agst. King 23 'Tis Adams pure naturalls, impure nature that makes a Subject covet to be a King. 1724A. Collins Gr. Chr. Relig. 81 The Sadducees profess'd to follow the pure text of Scripture, or to interpret it according to the literal sense. 1864Bowen Logic vi. (1870) 148, I know at once, or by Immediate Inference,—that is, by an act of Pure Thought. 1882Minchin Unipl. Kinemat. 130 The strain at a point is said to be pure strain if the principal axes (axes of the strain ellipse) are not rotated by the strain.
b. In reference to descent or lineage: Of unmixed descent, pure-blooded. pure line [tr. G. reine linie (W. Johannsen Erblichkeit in Populationen und in reinen Linien (1903) 9)], an inbred line of descent; also attrib., an individual belonging to such a line.
c1475Rauf Coilȝear 20 In point thay war to parische, thay proudest men and pure. 1568Grafton Chron. II. 286 To people the towne with pure Englishe men. 1827Roberts Voy. Centr. Amer. 137 He was an Indian of pure blood. 1853J. H. Newman Hist. Sk. (1873) II. i. i. 24, I consider Attila to have been a pure Hun. 1866G. Macdonald Ann. Q. Neighb. xxvii, That horse..is very nearly a pure Arab. 1906R. H. Lock Rec. Progess Study Variation iv. 110 If we were to carry on this conception to the case of bisexual inheritance, we should find that the different pure lines would become crossed and confused together. 1926J. S. Huxley Ess. Pop. Sci. ii. 22 Beans are self-fertilising; so that if, instead of treating the sample as a whole, he kept the beans produced from each plant separate, he could be sure of dealing with a hereditarily pure stock, or as it is usually called, a pure line. 1932Discovery Oct. 320/2 In the cotton industry we have the magnificent succession of ‘pure lines’ particularly in the Egyptian cottons. 1947Ann. Rev. Microbiol. I. 27 Ritz..later showed that an apparently inexhaustible succession of immunologically distinct variants may appear in a single animal. This work..is of especial interest since the strain of T. brucei used was a ‘pure line’ derived from a single trypanosome. 1958Srb & Owen Gen. Genetics xvi. 335 Selection within pure lines..is ineffective because it is biologically meaningless. 1965‘Lauchmonen’ Old Thom's Harvest i. 5 When I get my credit-bank money to buy pure-line seeds them ricefields gwine be planted again.
c. Law. Having no condition annexed; absolute, unconditional. pure alms: cf. almoign 2.[Cf. cl. L. pūrus, unconditional, absolute; med.L. pūra (et perpetua) eleēmosyna (a 1100), AF. pure (et perpetuele) almoigne; also F. pur et simple (Montesquieu 1747).] 1536–7Award. conc. St. Bartholomew's Hosp., Oxford 3 Feb., The which said Hospital, King Edward the third..gave and granted unto the predecessors of the said Provost and Scholars [of Oriel]..in free pure and perpetual alms. 1713Act 13 Anne, c. 6 §8 To have and to hold the said Canonship or Prebend to the said Colwell Brickenden..and his Successors..in pure and perpetual Alms. 1818Colebrooke Obligations 151 [If] one be conditional or deferred for a term, while the other is a pure and simple engagement. 1880Muirhead Gaius ii. §244 Sabinus and Cassius think that a conditional legacy to him is valid, but not a pure one.
d. Of a subject of study or practice: Restricted to that which essentially belongs to it; not including its relations with kindred or connected subjects. (Often denoting the simply theoretical part of a subject, apart from its practical applications, as in pure mathematics; opp. to applied 2, mixed 7.) Also said of a student or practitioner who confines himself to one particular subject or branch of a subject. Hence, with reference to the arts (chiefly music, painting, and poetry): used of an art in its absolute, essential, or most objective form; freq. in contrast to that which is representational, didactic, or commercial in intent. Also used of an artist whose work is of this sort.
1641Wilkins Math. Magick i. ii. (1648) 12 Mathematicks..is usually divided into pure and mixed; and though the pure doe handle only abstract quantity..that which is mixed doth consider the quantity of some particular determinate subject. 1750Johnson Rambler No. 14 ⁋5 The difference between pure science, which has to do only with ideas, and the application of its laws to the use of life. 1858Mayne Expos. Lex. s.v., In England..the profession is ostensibly divided into three distinct branches, viz. pure physicians, or those who profess to act only in medical cases; pure surgeons, or those who practise surgery alone; and surgeon-apothecaries, or general practitioners. 1883Encycl. Brit. XV. 752/2 Pure Mechanism, or Applied Kinematics: being the theory of machines considered simply as modifying motion. 1901A. C. Bradley Poetry for Poetry's Sake 28 Pure poetry is not the decoration of a preconceived and clearly defined matter: it springs from the creative impulse of a vague imaginative mass pressing for development and definition. 1903R. B. Carter Doctors & Work i. 4 A small number of operating, or so-called ‘pure’ surgeons. a1909Mod. He is a pure physicist; he does not know chemistry. 1914[see Orphic a. (n.)]. 1924G. Moore Anthol. Pure Poetry 34 If you approve of my definition of pure poetry, something that the poet creates outside of his own personality, we three might compile a book that would be a real advancement in the study of poetry—an anthology of pure poetry. 1926H. Read Reason & Romanticism iii. 59 Pure poetry, Mr. Moore holds, is born of admiration of ‘the only permanent world, the world of things’. 1927New Criterion V. 10 Whither would the notion of ‘pure art’ lead us if pushed to its farthest logical extremity? To an art completely isolated from everything but its own laws of operation and the object to be created as such. 1929E. Wilson I thought of Daisy iii. 183, I thought..of those other efforts, those efforts more characteristic of our time, which aimed, also, at an absolute beauty, at an art wholly independent of the appetites and agonies of men—paintings which represented nothing, ‘pure poetry’ devoid of ideas. 1934C. Lambert Music Ho! iii. 174 The recent invention by certain critics of a hitherto unknown art described as ‘pure music’ has resulted in the criticism of music becoming more and more detached from any form of life. 1935W. Stevens Let. 31 Oct. (1967) 288 There was a time when I liked the idea of images and images alone, or images and the music of verse together. I then believed in pure poetry, as it was called. 1941‘G. Orwell’ in Listener 29 May 768/1 James Joyce, was..about as near to being a ‘pure’ artist as a writer can be. 1946A. L. Bacharach Brit. Music of our Time viii. 118 The superficial æstheticians who insist on the necessity of music being ‘pure’, the implication being that any music that has the remotest connection with ‘literature’ is necessarily impure, and therefore ineligible for admission into the musical heaven. 1954C. S. Lewis Eng. Lit. in Sixteenth Cent. i. i. 92 This minuet of conventions..enables the poem to remain recognizably occasional and yet at the same time to become almost ‘pure’ poetry. We celebrate the royal wedding..; yet equally, we wander in a world of beautiful forms and colours. 1955Times 9 May 5/1 The exhibition would attract considerable attention and must help to break down the barrier which existed between commercial and pure art. 1959D. Cooke Lang. Mus. v. 231 Mozart's Fortieth Symphony and Vaughan Williams's Sixth..would both appear to be ‘pure’ music, since we have no evidence that their composers ever imagined that they expressed anything at all. Ibid. 234 Our own age has retained the romantic period's conception of Mozart as a ‘pure’ composer, but adopted a different attitude. 1978P. Griffiths Concise Hist. Mod. Music iv. 47 His [sc. Debussy's] creative energies were directed..into works of pure music.
e. Logic. Of a proposition or syllogism: opp. to modal a. 4.
1697tr. Burgersdicius his Logic i. xxviii. 112 A Pure Enunciation is that in which it is not express'd how the Parts cohere... Modal, in which it is. Ibid. ii. xiv. 60 A Pure [Syllogism] is that which consists of Propositions pure... Modal either of one or both Modal. 1725Watts Logic ii. ii. §4 When a proposition merely expresses that the predicate is connected with the subject, it is called a pure proposition; as, every true christian is an honest man: But when it includes also the way and manner wherein the predicate is connected with the subject, it is called a modal proposition; as, when I say, it is necessary that a true christian should be an honest man. 1827,1870[see modal a. 4].
f. Gram. (a) In Greek (καθαρός), of a vowel: Preceded by another vowel. Of the stem of a word: Ending in a vowel. Of a consonant (as s): Not accompanied by another consonant. (b) In Arabic, etc., of a syllable: Ending in a vowel, open.
1650E. Reeve Introd. Gr. Tongue 24 Nounes ending in δα, θα, ρα, or pure α, do make the Genitive in ας. Ibid., Adjectives in ις, having ος not pure [e.g. εύπατρις, ευπάτριδος]. 1776J. Richardson Arab. Gram. v. 14 [Syllables] are divided into pure and mixed; the pure consisting only of one consonant and one vowel,..the mixed of two consonants joined by a vowel. 1818Blomfield tr. Matthiæ's Gr. Gram. I. 218 Verbs pure, whose final syllable -ω is preceded by a diphthong. 1870E. Abbott tr. Curtius' Gr. Gram. i. vi. 57 In the formation of the acc. sing. of Masc. and Fem., the true vowel-nature of the stem declares itself, πόλι-ν, πολύ-ν; and the voc. sing...contains the pure vowel stem.
g. Philos. and Psychol. pure ego: the essential, transcendental ‘self’ distinguished from the empirical ‘self’, esp. in phenomenological contexts.
1890W. James Princ. Psychol. I. x. 292 The constituents of the Self may be divided into two classes, those which make up respectively—(a) The material Self; (b) The social Self; (c) The spiritual Self; and (d) The pure Ego. Ibid. 296 By the Spiritual Self, so far as it belongs to the Empirical Me, I mean a man's inner or subjective being, his psychic faculties or dispositions, taken concretely; not the bare principle of personal Unity, or ‘pure’ Ego. 1925Mind XXXIV. 320 In the second edition footnotes the reader of the Logical Studies learns that Husserl has changed his views on this crucial point, and has come to accept definitely..Natorp's Pure Ego. 1931W. R. B. Gibson tr. Husserl's Ideas ii. ii. 145 The thesis of my pure Ego and its personal life which is ‘necessary’ and plainly indubitable, thus stands opposed to the thesis of the world which is contingent. 1951A. Huxley Let. 9 June (1969) 635 A deeper layer of ‘Original Virtue’, which is one of peace, illumination and insight, which seems to be on the fringes of the Pure Ego or Atman. 1961G. W. Allport Devel. of Personality vi. 129 Kant argued that..the knowing self is just there, a transcendental or pure ego. 1974G. L. Breckon tr. de Muralt's Idea of Phenomenol. §52. 328 The pure ego is therefore the subject of transcendental constitution, the ego pole of intentionality, the centre and point of departure of every intentional function.
h. Biol. pure culture, a culture in which only one species or clone is present; also attrib.
1895Ann. Bot. IX. 610 The method adopted by De Bary of cultivating each species separately for many generations—that of so-called ‘pure cultures’—has been of inestimable value. 1930Forestry IV. 66 It seemed possible..that pure culture experiments..might also yield some information..on the origin of the mycorrhizal habit in trees. 1952New Biol. XIII. 110 Pure-culture technique is a ‘stock-in-trade’ of the micro-biologist. 1973G. D. Bowen in Marks & Kozlowski Ectomycorrhizae v. 166 Many..of 27 mycorrhizal fungi in pure culture could use nitrate as the sole source of nitrogen.
3. a. Taken by itself, with nothing added; {ddd}and nothing else; nothing but{ddd}, nothing besides {ddd}, no more than{ddd}; mere, simple.
Often in phr. pure and simple, following the n. (cf. 2 c).
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 794 He isei þat he moste attenende Vor pur meseise vorfare. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 1026 For pure pytte & Ioy þai gret. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxii. 144 Many ..diez for pure elde withouten sekeness. 1494Fabyan Chron. v. cvii. 81 The .ii. sonnes of Mordred were constrayned of pure force to seche stronge holdes for theyr refuge. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, ii. i. 157 Alas Sir, we did it for pure need. 1639Fuller Holy War iv. xix, Knowing no more how to sway a sceptre then a pure clown to manage a sword. 1724A. Collins Gr. Chr. Relig. 79 This distinction is the pure invention of those who make the objection. 1860Geo. Eliot Let. 7 June (1954) III. 302 But the most ignorant journalist in England would hardly think of calling me a rival of Miss Mulock—a writer who is read only by novel readers, pure and simple, never by people of high culture. 1861M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 38 His delay in setting out was due to pure procrastination and dilatoriness. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 29 That of which we are speaking is knowledge pure and simple. 1954C. S. Lewis Eng. Lit. in Sixteenth Cent. 4 Even when hills are praised for not despising lowly plains we have still hardly reached the realm of metaphor pure and simple. 1977Lancs. Life Nov. 58/3 They attract on a variety of levels: as toys or fun-things pure and simple, as tactile objects, [etc.].
b. In emphatic or intensive sense: Nothing short of{ddd}, absolute, sheer, thorough, utter, perfect, complete.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1917 He was..pur mesel þo & he bicom in is baptizinge hol of al is wo. c1400Destr. Troy 1817 Pelleus..sourdit into soure greme, And Priam reprouyt as a pure fole. 1472–3Rolls of Parlt. VI. 36/1 Contynuyng alwey in his pure malice and envy. 1611Chapman May-Day v. Plays (1889) 303/1 His master hath such a pure belief in his wife, that he's apt to believe any good of her. 1794Godwin Cal. Williams 182, I believed that misery more pure than that which I now endured had never fallen to the lot of a human being. 1870Ruskin Let. in Athenæum 30 Sept. (1905) 428/3 Dickens was a pure modernist—a leader of the steam-whistle party par excellence. 1902Buchan Watcher by Threshold 145 A lot of pure nonsense.
†c. That is the thing itself, not something else; true, real, genuine; very. Obs.
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 2308 He..sede he was purost eyr to be icrouned to kinge. Ibid. 8609 In a toun in barcssire..out of þe erþe pur blod sprong ywis. 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 704 Wel nyȝe pure paradys moȝt preue no better. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 421 The pure fettres of his shynes grete Weren of his bittre salte teeres wete. c1400Laud Troy Bk. 6656 He..persed his Armure,..That it come to his fflesche pure. 1534More Comf. agst. Trib. i. Wks. 1162/2 Til the pure panges of death pulled their heart fro their play.
III. Free from corruption or defilement.
4. Free from admixture of anything debasing or deteriorating; unadulterated, uncorrupted, uncontaminated; conforming accurately to a standard of quality or style; faultless, correct.
13..K. Alis. 84 Thus he asaied the regiouns, That him cam for to asaile;—In puyr maner of bataile. 1390Gower Conf. II. 214 Mi ladi..is the pure hed and welle And Mirour and ensample of goode. 1526Tindale Jas. i. 27 Pure devocion and undefiled. 1540Palsgr. Acolastus Ep. to King A iij b, In suche places of your realme as the pureste englyshe is spoken. 1617Moryson Itin. i. 182 At Geneua many French Gentlemen and Students comming thither..did speake pure French. 1788Gibbon Decl. & F. l. (1838) V. 21 The purest disciples of Zoroaster escaped from the contagion of idolatry. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 165 They had been oppressed, and oppression had kept them a pure body. 1882C. Pebody Eng. Journalism xvi. 124 His taste, if severe, was pure.
5. a. Free from moral defilement or corruption; of unblemished character or nature; unstained or untainted with evil; guiltless, innocent; guileless, sincere. Rarely const. † of (obs.), from (arch.). Often absol., the pure (sc. persons).
a1340Hampole Psalter xxiii. 4 He..þat is pure in werkis and clen in thoghtis. 1481Caxton Myrr. i. xiv. 48 To saue his sowle whiche God hath lent to hym pure and clene to thende that he shold rendre it such agayn. 1526Tindale Matt. v. 8 Blessed are the pure in herte. Ibid., Acts xx. 26, I am pure from the bloud of all men. Ibid., Titus i. 15 Unto the pure are all thynges pure. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 506 Nature her self, though pure of sinful thought. 1719Watts Hymns i. lxxxvi, How should the sons of Adam's race Be pure before their God? 1790Paley Horæ Paul. Concl., His morality is everywhere calm, pure, and rational. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 171 A friendship as warm and pure as any that ancient or modern history records. 1851Tennyson To the Queen vii, Her court was pure; her life serene. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiii. III. 265 He protested..that his hands were pure from the blood of the persecuted Covenanters.
†b. Applied mockingly to Puritans; also to Quakers. Obs.
1598Marston Sco. Villanie i. i, Lucia, new set thy ruffe; tut, thou art pure, Canst thou not lispe ‘good brother’, look demure? 1601B. Jonson Poetaster iv. i, To helpe 'hem to some pure landresses, out of the citie. 1785G. A. Bellamy Apology II. 45 My mother, from being one of the pure ones, had changed her religion to that of a methodist.
6. Sexually undefiled; chaste.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 8 Alle clad in white, in tokyn of clennes, Lyke pure virgines. 1588A. King tr. Canisius' Catech. in Cath. Tractates (S.T.S.) 209 That blissit Marie remaines still puir virgine. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, v. iv. 83 And yet forsooth she is a Virgin pure. 1671Milton P.R. i. 134. 1771 tr. Horstius' Parad. Soul App. 21 Hail you, the Sea's bright Star, Who God's pure Mother are. 1904Hymns A. & M. No. 55 A maiden pure and undefiled Is by the Spirit great with child.
7. Free from ceremonial defilement; fit for sacred service or use; ‘clean’.
1611Bible Ezra vi. 20 The Priestes and the Leuites were purified together, all of them were pure, and killed the Passeouer. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage ii. xvi. (1614) 199 His [a Jew's] wife hath prepared his dinner, pure meats purely dressed.
IV.
8. a. slang or colloq. (? orig. ironical). A general term of appreciation: Fine, excellent, capital, jolly, nice, splendid. Now rare or Obs.
1675Wycherley Country Wife iii. i, I was quiet enough till my husband told me what pure lives the London ladies live abroad with their dancing, meeting and junketing. 1695Congreve Love for L. v. ii, O I have pure news, I can tell you, pure news. a1720Vanbrugh Journ. to London i. ii, A slice of it [goose pie] before supper to-night would have been pure. 1734Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1861) I. 508 Well, is it not pure that we shall meet in a fortnight? 1747Garrick Miss in her Teens ii, The door's double locked, and I have the key in my pocket. Biddy. That's pure. 1884Henley & Stevenson Deacon Brodie i. iii. Sc. 3 (1892) 35 O, such manners are pure, pure, pure!
b. In conjunction with another adj.: pure and{ddd}= nice and{ddd}, fine and{ddd}; excellently, satisfactorily; thoroughly (= C. 1: cf. 2 above). Now dial. (See and conj. 4.)
1742Fielding Jos. Andrews ii. xiv, They [sc. hogs] were all pure and fat. 1788C. Smith Emmeline (1816) IV. 271 You would have been pure and happy to drive about in a one-horse chaise. 1769Romaine Let. 27 Oct. (1795) xxvii. 122, I saw Lady H― ―, who was pure and well. 1865Let. to Editor, In answer to the question ‘How do you do?’ in Cornwall..they say ‘Pure and well, thank you’.
c. dial. Quite well, in good health: = purely 4 b.
1854N. & Q. 1st Ser. IX. 527/1 The word pure is commonly used in Gloucestershire to express being in good health... ‘I hope, Zur, the ladies be all pure.’ 1900Eng. Dial. Dict.
d. the pure quill, the genuine article, the real thing. N. Amer. dial. or colloq.
1884C. B. Lewis Sawed-off Sketches 23 There's hairs of six different colors sticking in the splinters, and those blood stains are the pure quill. 1893N. & Q. 23 Sept. 248/1 One of your correspondents..states that the expressions, ‘the cheese’, ‘pick of the basket’, &c., although now almost obsolete on this side of the Atlantic, are still to be heard in America. The expression ‘the pure quill’, having a similar meaning, I have often heard used in Canada and in the States. 1917Dialect Notes IV. 327 That tobacco is the pure quill. 1935H. Davis Honey in Horn xxi. 330 To prove that his product [sc. rattlesnake oil] was the pure quill, he also exhibited..a row of half-gallon fruit-jars, each containing one large live rattler. 1956N. Algren Walk on Wild Side ii. 152 A pint of Bottled-in-the-Barn. They drank it down to the half-pint mark. ‘That stuff is so good a feller can't hardly bite it off,’ Dove told Luke. ‘It's the pure quill.’
B. n. (or absol.)
1. That which is pure; purity. poet.
a1625Lodge Misc. Pieces ii. Wks. 1883 IV, Her eies shrowd pitie, pietie, and pure. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 627 Union of Pure with Pure. 1873Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country ii. 735 How heaven's own pure may seem To blush. 1874Tennyson Vivien 35 The mask of pure Worn by this court. 1898G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 6 Earth's warrior Best To win Heaven's Pure.
†2. ‘Pured’ fur: see pured 2, puree1. Obs.
1512Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. IV. 215 For lyning of the said Tanne weluus goune within with puyr.
†3. A kept mistress. Obs. slang.
1688Shadwell Sqr. Alsatia ii. i, Where's..the Blowing, that is to be my Natural, my Convenient, my Pure. a1700B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Pure, a Mistress. 1725in New Cant. Dict.
4. A ‘pure’ physician or surgeon: see the adj., sense 2 d. Med. colloq.
1827Lancet 15 Dec. 434/2 Do the Pures profess a kind of surgery in the abstract? 1843Sir J. Paget Let. 19 Dec. in Mem. vi. (1901) 148 The election of the pures in London was not I am told general. [Note, The ‘pures’ were the surgeons in consulting practice.]
5. [Cf. pure v. 1 b.] Tanning. Dogs' dung or other substance used as an alkaline lye for steeping hides. Also in Comb. as pure-collector, pure-finder, pure-finding. (Also spelt pewer, puer.)
1845G. Dodd Brit. Manuf. V. ix. 189 A solution called the ‘pure’ or the ‘pewer’ is prepared in a large vessel, and into this the skins are immersed. 1851Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 142 Dogs'-dung is called ‘Pure’, from its cleansing and purifying properties. Ibid., The name of ‘Pure-finders’..has been applied to the men engaged in collecting dogs'-dung from the..streets. Ibid., There are about 30 tanyards..and these all have their regular Pure collectors. 1858Simmonds Dict. Trade, Puer, a tanner's name for dogs' dung. Ibid., Pure, Pewer. 1946Thorpe's Dict. Appl. Chem. (ed. 4) VII. 264/2 Modern artificial bates have replaced almost completely the older ‘dung bate’ or puer, an infusion of dog- or, less often, pigeon-dung.
6. A genuine person. rare.
1924W. M. Raine Troubled Waters xix. 201 You-all are losing a better man than Missie ever had. He's a pure, Mac is.
C. adv.
1. Absolutely, entirely, thoroughly, quite. Also, with verbs: just, simply; really, truly.
In early use from sense 3 b of the adj.; in 18th c. slang or colloq., from sense 8 b; now dial. (esp U.S.).
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1542 He bicom sone þer after pur gidy & wod. 1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 2499 He says ‘our ille dedys er pur ille wroght, Bot our gud dedis pur gud er noght’. c1394P. Pl. Crede 170 Þe pris of a plouȝ-lond..To aparaile þat pyler were pure lytel. c1491Caxton Chast. Goddes Chyld. 89 It is pure easy..to folow god and serue hym in tyme of tranquylite. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 37 This yere [1522] departed Reucline, a pure aged man [ætate gravis]. 1710Swift Jrnl. to Stella 23 Sept., Ballygall will be a pure good place for air. 1750Let. 29 May in Mrs. Delany's Life & Corr. (1861) II. 548 Your amiable and worthy sister is pure well. 1810Splendid Follies I. 78 The course will be pure swampy in some parts. 1928J. Peterkin Scarlet Sister Mary iii. 27 My jaws pure leak water just to look at em. Ibid. 35 What you done pure cuts my heart-strings. 1932W. Faulkner Light in August (1933) xv. 332 He was pure crazy by now, standing on the corner and yelling at whoever would pass. 1937Frontier & Midland Autumn 13/2 Hit was puore accidental and it was with a shotgun he was unloadin. 1942W. Faulkner in Sat. Even. Post 28 Mar. 38/3, I would pure cut a throat if it would bring you back to stay.
2. Purely, in various senses; simply, merely; rightly; chastely. poet. rare.
c1460G. Ashby Dicta Philos. 590 A kynge shude be right besy and studious To gouerne his Roiaulme & his people pure. 1601Shakes. Twel. N. v. i. 86 For his sake, Did I expose my selfe (pure for his loue) Into the danger. 1602― Ham. iii. iv. 158 O throw away the worser part of it, And liue the purer with the other halfe.
3. Qualifying an adj. of colour (chiefly white): Purely, with no admixture of any other colour.
(Not always clearly distinguishable from pure adj.: cf. a pure white rose: a rose whose colour is a pure white.)
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 182 So clene & vair & pur ȝwit among oþere men hii beþ. 1530Palsgr. 259/2 Pure white sylke, soye bissine. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. iii. iii. 22. a 1618 Sylvester Spectacles xxxiv, The Lily (first) pure-whitest Flow'r of any. 1853W. Gregory Inorg. Chem. (ed. 3) 256 Gold is distinguished by its pure yellow colour.
D. Comb.:
a. parasynthetic, as pure-blooded (also fig.), pure-bosomed, pure-coloured, pure-eyed, pure-hearted, pure-mannered, pure-minded, pure-natured, pure-sighted, pure souled, pure toned adjs.; pure-mindedness; pure-relational Linguistics (see quots.); pure-watered a., of unmarred brilliance (cf. water n. 20).
b. adverbial and complemental, as pure-bred (also absol. and fig.), pure-driven, pure-living, pure-washed; pure-breeding, producing genetically similar progeny.
1850L. H. Garrard Wah-To-Yah vii. 109 The unfair horsetrader might have taken my scalp for presuming to dictate to him, a..*pure-blooded Cheyenne. 1886C. Scott Sheep-Farming 157 Breeding pure-blooded rams for sale. 1892W. James in Philos. Rev. I. 149 They have quite as little [aptitude] as the pure-blooded philosophers have for discovering particular facts. 1903Rep. Kansas State Board Agric. 1901–02 II. 63 A quarter of a billion acres of grass, nurturing 10,000,000 head of cattle..can be doubled in value in a single decade, if only pure-blooded sires are used in all the cow herds during this time.
1868Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 10 Specimens of *pure-bred domestic fowls. 1903Biometrika II. 171 Pure-bred mice usually are inbred. 1919‘W. N. P. Barbellion’ Jrnl. Disappointed Man 179 If only I were pure-bred science or pure-bred art. 1923D. H. Lawrence Birds, Beasts & Flowers 177 Sensitive mother Kangaroo. Her sensitive, long, pure-bred face, Her full antipodal eyes. 1927Haldane & Huxley Animal Biol. ii. 68 The original pure-bred rose⁓comb stock gives nothing but rose-combs. 1937K. Blixen Out of Africa iii. 191 A stud-farm of purebreds. 1945[see grade n. 7]. 1976Sci. Amer. Sept. 186/3 The object is merely to incorporate new traits into the heterogeneous population, not to create a purebred variety. 1976Cumberland News 3 Dec. 15/3 In the live cattle section the pure-breds have made a come-back with a sharp rise in entries from 294 in 1975 to 318 this year.
1927Haldane & Huxley Animal Biol. ii. 69 We should get four *pure-breeding types in the second generation. 1964D. Michie in G. H. Haggis et al. Introd. Molecular Biol. viii. 206 Griffith injected mice with living pneumococci of a pure-breeding strain lacking the polysaccharide capsule characteristic of most members of this species.
1634Milton Comus 213 O welcom *pure-ey'd Faith, white-handed Hope,..And thou unblemish't form of Chastity.
1832J. G. Whittier in S. T. Pickard Life & Lett. J. G. Whittier (1894) I. iii. 108 Those who o'er our tarnished honor grieve..the *pure-hearted and the gifted.
1896Abp. Benson in Nat. Church Feb. 51/2 Pray we for a temperate, a *pure-living people.
1819Shelley Peter Bell vi. xxxiv, The most sublime, religious, *Pure-minded poet.
1891G. Meredith One of our Conquerors III. vii. 135 He might have put a reluctant faith in the *puremindedness of these aspirations, without reverting to her origin.
1855Bagehot Coll. Works (1965) I. 319 They are emphatically *pure⁓natured and firm-natured. Instinctively casting aside the coarse temptations and crude excitements of a vulgar earth, [etc.]. 1913J. Masefield Daffodil Fields 12 Gentle she seemed, pure-natured, thoughtful, wise.
1921E. Sapir Language v. 107 *Pure Relational Concepts (purely abstract): normally expressed by affixing non-radical elements to radical elements..or by their inner modification, by independent words, or by position; serve to relate the concrete elements of the proposition to each other, thus giving it definite syntactic form. Ibid. vi. 145 Languages that keep the syntactic relations pure and that do not possess the power to modify the significance of their radical elements by means of affixes or internal changes. We may call these Pure-relational non⁓deriving languages or, more tersely, Simple Pure-relational languages. These are the languages that cut most to the bone of linguistic expression. Ibid., Languages that keep the syntactic relations pure and that also possess the power to modify the significance of their radical elements by means of affixes or internal changes. These are the Pure-relational deriving languages or Complex Pure-relational languages. 1944R. A. Hall Hungarian Gram. (Language Monograph No. 21) 22 There are three fundamental types of suffixes which are added to substantives: derivational (the plural suffix), concrete-relational (the personal possessive suffixes, expressing ownership of the object denoted by the noun, on the part of the person indicated by the suffix), and pure-relational (twenty suffixes, including the accusative, whose addition gives the substantive adverbial function). 1945Language XXI. 255 This analysis results in three pure-relational categories in Hungarian: case suffixes, suffixed postpositions, and free postpositions. The former two classes can be grouped together as pure-relational suffixes, to preserve both Hall's (originally Sapir's) term and class. 1963N. N. Poppe Tatar Manual ii. 34 Pure-relational suffixes are added to the concrete-relational (possessive) suffixes... The pure-relational suffixes serve to denote the relations between an object and other objects or between an object and an action. The system of pure-relational forms is what is commonly called ‘declension’.
1596Spenser Hymn Heavenly Love 276 All earthes glorie..[will] Seeme durt and drosse in thy *pure-sighted eye.
1910F. M. Ford Let. 28 Oct. (1965) 45 When you—the unscrupulous villain and I, the *pure-souled Idealist join forces how that dovecote will flutter! 1923F. L. Packard Four Stragglers ii. vii. 220 A girl, high-minded, pure-souled.
1869J. G. Whittier Among Hills 36 Through her his civic service shows A *purer-toned ambition; No double consciousness divides The man and politician.
1801Bloomfield Rural T. 86 On the *pure-wash'd sand.
1851H. Melville Moby Dick III. vii. 56 In the clear air of day,..the *pure-watered diamond drop will healthful glow. 1929Blunden English Poems (rev. ed.) 54 Here yet its fruit-trees shield love-nooks, Its well's pure-watered diamond.
c. pure-cone, -rod attrib., having only cones, or rods, as photoreceptors; pure food attrib., of or concerned with the maintenance and promotion of purity in food through the control of additives, avoidance of the use of chemical fertilizers, or the like; pure-jet Aeronaut.: usu. attrib., denoting engines, aircraft, etc., in which all thrust is provided directly by reaction to the exhaust jet, without the assistance of fans or propellers; pure-rod attrib.: see pure-cone above.
1942G. L. Walls Vertebrate Eye iii. 73 Perfectly familiar to all is the increase of visual acuity with intensity... If we knew very accurately this relationship for pure-rod and *pure-cone animals, we would expect to find their curves of acuity-versus-intensity to be kinkless. 1962Science Survey III. 243 One of the American ground squirrels, one of the few mammalian species known to have a pure-cone retina and to be strongly diurnal. 1970Jrnl. Marine Biol. Assoc. U.K. L. 454 There is no evidence of summation in early development which is to be expected in a pure-cone retina. It is, however, surprising that there is also little evidence of summation in the two pure-rod eyes (leptocephalus and macrurid).
1894Jrnl. Franklin Inst. Apr. 267 Senator Paddock, of Nebraska..after years of futile struggle, succeeded in having the Senate pass what is known as the *Pure Food Bill. 1913Collier's Weekly 16 Aug. 24/2 The clubwomen of Idaho are banded together to have their State known as a pure-food State. 1923Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xvi. 214, I was feeling more or less like something the Pure Food Committee had rejected. 1965Punch 14 July p. xii/2 The Four Seasons is another of the popular pure-food centres. 1969‘I. Drummond’ Man with Tiny Head xiv. 161 He was..a pure-food fanatic with a hatred of chemical fertilisers.
1946Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. L. 360/2 The weight of a *pure jet engine, as compared with that of the aeroplane in which it had to be fitted..was small. 1959Daily Tel. 2 Mar. 16/4 A pure-jet plane may evade interception. 1960C. H. Gibbs-Smith Aeroplane xvi. 127 Turboprop engines are ideal for commercial airliners whose operations take them too far from the optimum conditions of altitude and speed necessary for the economic use of the pure jet. 1969Jane's Freight Containers 1968–69 415/1 By..1975, Lockheed will possess unrivalled knowledge of operating large, pure-jet freighters.
1942*Pure-rod [see pure-cone above]. 1962Science Survey III. 242 In ‘pure-rod’ eyes the retinal structure is always the limiting factor for visual acuity and in these eyes it is always poor. 1970[see pure-cone above.]
▪ II. pure, v.
Also (sense 1 b) puer.
[a. OF. purer:—L. pūrāre to purify (with religious rites), f. pūrus pure.]
1.
†a. trans. To make pure; to cleanse, purify, refine (lit. and fig.). Obs. exc. as in b.
c1340Hampole Prose Tr. 16 Þat saule þat es purede in þe fyre of lufe of Godd. 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 1116 Þou may..pure þe with penaunce tyl þou a perle worþe. c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxiii. 149 Þe whilk pissemyres kepez bisily and pures þe gold and disseuerez þe fyne gold fra þe vnfyne. c1460G. Ashby Dicta Philos. 90 Ye must pure youre selfe fyrst withoute blame. 1581T. Howell Deuises (1879) 217 As fyre by heate the Golde doth fine and pure. 1608Middleton Fam. Love iii. iii, If you be unclean..you may pure yourself. 1635Heywood Hierarch. v. 242 The Light, pur'd and refin'd.
b. Tanning. To cleanse (hides) by steeping them in a bate or alkaline lye. (Cf. pure n. 5.)
1845G. Dodd Brit. Manuf. V. ix. 190 After being ‘pured’ for some time, the skins are taken out and scraped well. 1883Workshop Receipts Ser. ii. 366/2 They [calf-skins] are then unhaired and fleshed in the usual manner, pured with a bate of dog's dung. 1907Camb. Mod. Hist. Prospectus 100 Bating or puring as it is called, is a process by which all but a very small amount of the natural grease is removed from the skin. 1913D. J. Law in G. Martin Industr. & Manuf. Chem.: Organic xix. 580 The goods are then ‘puered’, which operation consists in paddling in a weak warm infusion of fermented dog-dung.
†2. (?) intr. To become pure. rare.
c1315Shorehan Poems i. 67 And aldey he to senne falleþ, Her ne moȝe nauȝt pury Of serewnessche.
Hence ˈpuring vbl. n.
1897[see grainering vbl. n.]. 1897Hide & Leather 22 May 21/1 After puring, rinse well and work on flesh side. 1898Ibid. 17 Dec. 25/2 The excrement used in puring should be as fresh as possible, hen manure being used for hides, pig manure for calfskin and dog's dung for goats. 1964H. Hodges Artifacts xi. 150 This process of plumping, bating or puering, was essentially one of partial putrefaction. 1972Materials & Technol. V. xii. 401 Puering and bating assist in the removal of short hairs, lime soaps, and cementing substances in the skin.
▪ III. pure
obs. form of pore v., poor. |