purge

Etymology

From Middle English purgen, from Old French purgier, from Latin pūrgō (“I make pure, I cleanse”), from pūrus (“clean, pure”) + agō (“I make, I do”).

noun

1. An act of purging.
2. (medicine) An evacuation of the bowels or a vomiting.
3. A cleansing of pipes.
4. A forcible removal of people, for example, from political activity.
   Stalin liked to ensure that his purges were not reversible.
   One of the few surviving Bolsheviks with real power, Mikoyan had been brought to Moscow by Stalin in 1926, had escaped innumerable purges, and had demonstrated an uncanny ability to survive and to associate himself with the right faction at the right time. 1971, Lyndon Johnson, “"I feel like I have already been here a year"”, in The Vantage Point, Holt, Reinhart & Winston, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 24
5. That which purges; especially, a medicine that evacuates the intestines; a cathartic.
   he prescribes a Purge or a Vomit 1722, John Arbuthnot, Mr. Maitland’s account of inoculating the small-pox

verb

1. (transitive) To clean thoroughly; to cleanse; to rid of impurities.
2. (transitive, religion) To free from sin, guilt, or the burden or responsibility of misdeeds.
3. (transitive) To remove by cleansing; to wash away.
4. (transitive, intransitive, medicine) To void or evacuate (the bowels or the stomach); to defecate or vomit.
5. (transitive, medicine) To cause someone to purge, operate on (somebody) as or with a cathartic or emetic, or in a similar manner.
   "What did they die of?” I asked. "Fevers. The doctor came and bled them and purged them, but they still died." "He bled and purged babies?" "They were two and three. He said it would break the fever. And it did. But they … they died anyway." 1979, Octavia Butler, Kindred
6. (transitive, of a person) To forcibly remove, e.g., from political activity.
   Deng Xiaoping was purged twice during the Cultural Revolution, but managed to return to power after Mao's death.
7. (transitive, of an organization, by extension) To forcibly remove people from.
   Cromwell had Colonel Pride purge Parliament of royalists who opposed Charles I's execution.
8. (transitive, law) To clear of a charge, suspicion, or imputation.
9. (transitive) To clarify; to clear the dregs from (liquor).
10. (intransitive) To become pure, as by clarification.
11. (intransitive) To have or produce frequent evacuations from the intestines, as by means of a cathartic.
12. (transitive) To trim, dress, or prune.