to cleanse, clear, or purify by separating and carrying off whatever is impure, heterogeneous, foreign, or superfluous.-to operate on as, or by means of, a cathartic medicine, or in a similar manner.-to clarify; to defecate, as liquors.-to clear of sediment, as a boiler, or of air, as a steam pipe, by driving off or permitting escape.-to clear from guilt, or from moral or ceremonial defilement; as, to purge one of guilt or crime.-to clear from accusation, or the charge of a crime or misdemeanor, as by oath or in ordeal.-to remove in cleansing; to deterge; to wash away; -- often followed by away.-to become pure, as by clarification.-to have or produce frequent evacuations from the intestines, as by means of a cathartic.-the act of purging.-that which purges; especially, a medicine that evacuates the intestines; a cathartic.