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puritanical. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Etymology
From puritanic + -al.
Pronunciation
Adjective
puritanical (comparative more puritanical, superlative most puritanical)
- Of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.
1834, L E L, chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. , volume II, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 192:The host proposed divers puritanical fancies—nay, once hinted at a head of Cromwell himself; but the hostess overruled all these proposals, and stood firm by the Sun.
- Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid (often used by way of reproach or contempt).
Quotations
Mrs. Barrymore is of interest to me. She is a heavy, solid person, very limited, intensely respectable, and inclined to be puritanical. You could hardly conceive a less emotional subject. Yet I have told you how, on the first night here, I heard her sobbing bitterly, and since then I have more than once observed traces of tears upon her face. Some deep sorrow gnaws ever at her heart. Sometimes I wonder if she has a guilty memory which haunts her, and sometimes I suspect Barrymore of being a domestic tyrant.
—A. Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Translations
of or pertaining to the Puritans
precise in observance of legal or religious requirements
Noun
puritanical (plural puritanicals)
- One who holds puritanical attitudes.
Anagrams