mikvahn.

1904 Jewish Encycl. VIII. 588 Miḳweh... Because of the use made of this word in connection with ritual purification.., it has become the term commonly used to designate the ritual bath... The miḳweh must contain sufficient water to cover entirely the body of a man of average size.

1911 M. Antin Malinke's Atonement in Atlantic Monthly Sept. 307/2 The rav had just returned from the mikweh.

1957 Man 57 69/1 The most conspicuous differences are..(2) the absence of the ritual immersion (Mikveh) which requires..construction..and a supply of water.

1968 L. Rosten Joys of Yiddish 242 Today, only very religious Jewish women observe the mikva custom—or attend a bathhouse for mikvas.

1970 L. M. Feinsilver Taste of Yiddish 249 Mikve immersion is also part of Orthodox conversion ritual.

1979 J. Klein Guide to Jewish Religious Practice 517 (heading) Family Purity II: The Miqweh.

1984 City Extra (Melbourne) 4 Sept. 8/1 Mikvahs were..for the ritual cleansing of women and their clothing after menstruation and of men who had come into contact with them.

1993 Man 28 815/1 She proceeds to analyse the sexual politics between husband and wife over the manipulation of the rules of niddah and subsequent attendance at the miqve, without which ritual, conjugal relations may not resume.

1997 Oxf. Dict. Jewish Religion 469/2 Drawn water is unfit for miqveh use. Miqva'ot answering to the halakhic requirements for their construction have been discovered..in both Ashkenazi and Sephardi countries... Maimonides emphasizes the spiritual nature of miqveh immersion.