SINCE 1828
purge
verb
\ ˈpərj
\
\
purged;
purging
Definition of purge
(Entry 1 of 2)
1a
: to clear of guilt
b
: to free from moral or ceremonial defilement
2a
: to cause evacuation from
purge the bowels
b(1)
: to make free of something unwanted
purge a manhole of gas purge yourself of fear
(2)
: to free (something, such as a boiler) of sediment or relieve (something, such as a steam pipe) of trapped air by bleeding
c(1)
: to rid (a nation, a political party, etc.) by a purge
(2)
: to get rid of
the leaders had been purged
purge
nounDefinition of purge (Entry 2 of 2)
Keep scrolling for more
Examples of purge in a Sentence
Verb
High-ranking officials were purged from the company following the merger. a day on which the faithful are expected to purge themselves of their sins through prayer and fastingRecent Examples on the Web: Verb
Anyone plagued by troublesome thoughts or deeds goes to the ocean to purge themselves of them. — Jamie Brisick, WSJ, "The Rush of Bodysurfing in Rio: A Traveler’s Guide," 3 Jan. 2019 Opponents of the laws say their intent is to purge people from the rolls, particularly minorities and the poor who tend to vote Democratic. — Washington Post, "Supreme Court’s voter roll decision may have limited impact," 12 June 2018 But if this sounds a bit stressful, don’t fret: At the end of the day, this is ultimately a time to purge. — Aliza Kelly Faragher, Allure, "What November's Capricorn Horoscope Means for You," 28 Oct. 2018 As previously reported, Lovato allegedly had numerous bad influences around her and sources tell TMZ that part of the benefit of rehab is allowing those close to her to purge such negative presences from her life. — Tyler Mccarthy, Fox News, "Demi Lovato reportedly checks out of hospital and into rehab two weeks after suffering an overdose," 6 Aug. 2018 The retiring-instead-of firing strategy was used in 2016 to purge Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal. — Monika Nalepa, Washington Post, "Poland may forcibly ‘retire’ dozens of Supreme Court justices," 10 July 2018 So far, there are no reports of developers asked to purge databases. — Glenn Fleishman, Fortune, "Apple Bars Apps from Scraping Address Books and Spamming Contacts," 13 June 2018 Servers that have been infected must not only remove the malicious Colourama module but also make registry changes that purge the Visual Basic script. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "Two new supply-chain attacks come to light in less than a week," 23 Oct. 2018 His number of followers hemorrhaged, presumably because Instagram purged many of the phony accounts. — Casey Newton, The Verge, "Facebook’s morale problem is getting worse," 6 Dec. 2018Recent Examples on the Web: Noun
In the aftermath of this week’s follower purge, people who have built their celebrity on social media platforms took a hit as well. — Julia Jacobs, New York Times, "In Twitter Purge, Top Accounts Lose Millions of Followers," 12 July 2018 The purge, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old son of King Salman, began without notice on Nov. 4, as authorities swept across the country rounding up hundreds of suspects, including some of the most prominent citizens. — Alaa Shahine, Bloomberg.com, "Saudi Arabia Struck Gold With Corruption Crackdown," 25 Jan. 2018 Even so, Minkel doesn’t think everyone is going to hate the purge of erotic material. — Bijan Stephen, The Verge, "Tumblr’s porn ban could be its downfall — after all, it happened to LiveJournal," 6 Dec. 2018 More than four decades after Alexander Solzhenitsyn won the Nobel prize for exposing the horrors of Stalin’s purges, Russian literature is again returning to the subject, examining an unhealed wound. — Maria Danilova, The Seattle Times, "Russian novel tells story of survival, love in Stalin’s camp," 14 Jan. 2019 This issue has been particularly pronounced in California, where fights to access police records have been waged for decades, dating back to a massive purge of police documents in the 1970s. — P.r. Lockhart, Vox, "A California city plans to shred years of police records before a new law makes them public," 27 Dec. 2018 Long under fire for allowing fake accounts to flourish, Twitter is promising a massive purge on Saturday to deal with the problem. — Jeet Heer, The New Republic, "Get ready for the great Twitter deflation.," 11 July 2018 The thought for most of us might feel like losing a limb or two, but during her most recent appearance on the royal tour of Australia with Prince Harry, Meghan has described her social media purge this year as an entirely positive move. — Lucy Wood, Marie Claire, "Meghan Markle Says Giving Up Social Media For Her Royal Role Was "Very Freeing"," 19 Oct. 2018 Other major political accounts were also hit by the purge, with President Trump losing 325,038 followers so far, a 0.7-percent decrease. — James Hohmann, Washington Post, "The Daily 202: GOP candidates caught in a bind on Medicaid," 13 July 2018These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'purge.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Keep scrolling for more
Keep scrolling for more
More Definitions for purge
purge
verb
English Language Learners Definition of purge
(Entry 1 of 2)
: to remove people from an area, country, organization, etc., often in a violent and sudden way
: to cause something to leave the body
purge
nounEnglish Language Learners Definition of purge (Entry 2 of 2)
: the often violent and sudden removal of people from an area, country, organization, etc.
See the full definition for purge in the English Language Learners Dictionary
purge
verb
\ ˈpərj
\
\
purged;
purging
Kids Definition of purge
(Entry 1 of 2)
1
: to get rid of
Ineffective workers were purged from the company.
2
: to rid of unwanted things or people
The heir alone would be able to … purge the school of all who were unworthy to study magic.— J. K. Rowling, Chamber of Secrets
purge
nounKids Definition of purge (Entry 2 of 2)
1
: an act or instance of ridding of what is unwanted
2
: the removal of members thought to be treacherous or disloyal
a purge of party leaders
purge
verb
\ ˈpərj
\
\
purged;
purging
Medical Definition of purge
(Entry 1 of 2)
1
: to cause evacuation from (as the bowels) or of or from the bowels of
drugs that purge the bowels purged the patient with a cathartic
2
: to free (itself) of suspended matter usually by sedimentation
—used of a liquid
purge
nounMedical Definition of purge (Entry 2 of 2)
Keep scrolling for more
purge
transitive verb
\ ˈpərj
\
\
purged;
purging
Legal Definition of purge
1
: to clear (as oneself or another) of guilt
purged himself of contempt
2
: to become no longer guilty of
purge the contempt
Keep scrolling for more
Comments on purge
What made you want to look up purge? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
Test Your Vocabulary
A Green Quiz
-
- What is the best definition of green-eyed monster?
Test your vocabulary with our 10-question quiz!
TAKE THE QUIZ
Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.
TAKE THE QUIZLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridgedWords at Play
Ask the Editors
Word Games
-
A Green Quiz
How many questions can you answer about the word "green"?
Take the quiz -
Return of Name that Color!
Additional colors! More obscure than before!
Take the quiz -
How Strong Is Your Vocabulary?
Test your vocabulary with our 10-question quiz!
Take the quiz -
SCRABBLE® Sprint
SCRABBLE® fans, sharpen your skills!
Play the game
Share purge
Resources for purge