Library / English Dictionary

SANCTIFY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: sanctified   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make pure or free from sin or guilt

Example:

he left the monastery purified

Synonyms:

purge; purify; sanctify

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "sanctify" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "sanctify"):

spiritualise; spiritualize (purify from the corrupting influences of the world)

lustrate (purify by means of a ritual; also used in post-Communist countries to refer to the political cleansing of former officials)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

saint (model of excellence or perfection of a kind; one having no equal)

saint (person of exceptional holiness)

sanctification (a religious ceremony in which something is made holy)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Render holy by means of religious rites

Synonyms:

bless; consecrate; hallow; sanctify

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "sanctify" is one way to...):

declare (state emphatically and authoritatively)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "sanctify"):

reconsecrate (consecrate anew, as after a desecration)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

saint (person of exceptional holiness)

saint (a person who has died and has been declared a saint by canonization)

sanctification (a religious ceremony in which something is made holy)

Credits