Search the Dictionary

d great officer in the British court, having the management of the royal stables, etc. In ceremonial cavalcades he rides next to the sovereign. -- Master of the rolls, in England, an officer who has charge of the rolls and patents that pass the great seal, and of the records of the chancery, and acts as assistant judg…

ted to external forms and ceremonies; making a show of religion without the spirit of it; ceremonial; formal; hypocritical; self-righteous. "Excess of outward and pharisaical holiness. " Bacon. "Pharisaical ostentation." Macaulay. -- Phar`i*sa"ic*al*ly, adv. -- Phar`i*sa"ic*al*ness, n.

To render ceremonially unclean; to disqualify or unfit for sacred use or service, or for social intercourse. Neither shall ye pollute the holy things of the children of Israel, lest ye die. Num. xviii. 32. They have polluted themselves with blood. Lam. iv. 14.

the Kwakiutl, Chimmesyan, and other Indians of the northwestern coast of North America, a ceremonial distribution by a man of gifts to his own and neighboring tribesmen, often, formerly, to his own impoverishment. Feasting, dancing, and public ceremonies accompany it.

An orderly and ceremonial progress of persons, either from the sacristy to the choir, or from the choir around the church, within or without. Shipley.

To clear from guilt, or from moral or ceremonial defilement; as, to purge one of guilt or crime. When that he hath purged you from sin. Chaucer. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Ps. li. 7.

The act or operation of cleansing ceremonially, by removing any pollution or defilement. When the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished. Luke ii. 22.

To free from ceremonial or legal defilement. And Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar, . . . and purified the altar. Lev. viii. 15. Purify both yourselves and your captives. Num. xxxi. 19.

A staff or baton borne by a sovereign, as a ceremonial badge or emblem of authority; a royal mace. And the king held out Esther the golden scepter that was in his hand. Esther v. 2.

The ceremonial observed by one of the Masonic systems, called in full the Ancient and Accepted Scotch Rite; also, the system itself, which confers thirty-three degrees, of which the first three are nearly identical with those of the York rite.

devotion; official religious duty performed; religious rites appropriate to any event or ceremonial; as, a burial service. The outward service of ancient religion, the rites, ceremonies, and ceremonial vestments of the old law. Coleridge.

bearing a crown of gigantic fan-shaped leaves which are used as umbrellas and as fans in ceremonial processions, and, when cut into strips, as a substitute for writing paper.

A ceremonial treatise related to Puranic and magic literature; esp., one of the sacred works of the worshipers of Sakti. -- Tan"tric (-trik), a.

d; obligation, claim, or desert, or gratitude; -- now generally used in the plural. "This ceremonial thanks." Massinger. If ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye for sinners also do even the same. Luke vi. 33. What great thank, then, if any man, reputed wise and constant, will neither do, nor perm…

Ceremonially unclean, according to the Jewish law; -- opposed to kosher.

A magnificent and imposing ceremonial performed in honor of a general who had gained a decisive victory over a foreign enemy.

Ceremonially impure; needing ritual cleansing. He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. Num. xix. 11.

The rite or ceremonial observed by one of the Masonic systems, deriving its name from the city of York, in England; also, the system itself, which, in England, confers only the first three degrees.