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To make pure or clear from material defilement, admixture, or imperfection; to free from extraneous or noxious matter; as, to purify liquors or metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air.

Important; material. "Purposeful accounts." Tylor. -- Pur"pose*ful*ly, adv.

aker buttons. (Bot.) See Nux vomica. -- Quaker gun, a dummy cannon made of wood or other material; -- so called because the sect of Friends, or Quakers, hold to the doctrine, of nonresistance. -- Quaker ladies (Bot.), a low American biennial plant (Houstonia cærulea), with pretty four-lobed corollas which are pale bl…

de by allowing a weak solution of alcohol to trickle slowly over shavings or other porous material. -- Quick water, quicksilver water. -- Quick with child, pregnant with a living child.

To wad, as a garment, with warm soft material.

The material used for making quilts.

y, a solid exterior angle, as of a building; now, commonly, one of the selected pieces of material by which the corner is marked.

A polishing material made of potter's clay that has failed in baking.

A fibrous material used for tying plants, said to come from the leaves of a palm tree of the genus Raphia. J. Smith (Dict. Econ. Plants).

Rails in general; also, material for making rails.

To form by the accumulation of materials or constituent parts; to build up; to erect; as, to raise a lofty structure, a wall, a heap of stones. I will raise forts against thee. Isa. xxxix. 3.

To fill or compact by pounding or driving. A ditch . . . was filled with some sound materials, and rammed to make the foundation solid. Arbuthnot.

ls in one rank or degree; an order; a class. The next range of beings above him are the immaterial intelligences. Sir M. Hale.

A round and tapering mass of hair, or similar material, used by women to support the puffs and rolls of their natural hair. [Local, U.S.]

Disagreeably damp or cold; chilly; as, a raw wind. "A raw and gusty day." Shak. Raw material, material that has not been subjected to a (specified) process of manufacture; as, ore is the raw material used in smelting; leather is the raw material of the shoe industry. -- Raw pig, cast iron as it comes from the smelting…

A dish of food that has been warmed again, hence, fig., something made up from old material; a rehash.

A formulary or prescription for making some combination, mixture, or preparation of materials; a receipt; especially, a prescription for medicine.

dy of rock yielding valuable ore. Reef builder (Zoöl.), any stony coral which contributes material to the formation of coral reefs. -- Reef heron (Zoöl.), any heron of the genus Demigretta; as, the blue reef heron (D.jugularis) of Australia.

To strengthen with new force, assistance, material, or support; as, to reënforce an argument; to reënforce a garment; especially, to strengthen with additional troops, as an army or a fort, or with additional ships, as a fleet. [Written also reinforce.]

owner of a vessel, containing the description of a vessel, its name, ownership, and other material facts. It is kept on board the vessel, to be used as an evidence of nationality or as a muniment of title.