puritanical
English
Alternative forms
- Puritanical
Etymology
puritanic + -al
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /pjʊəɹ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kəl/
- (US) IPA(key): /pjɚ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kl̩/
Adjective
puritanical (comparative more puritanical, superlative most puritanical)
- Of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.
- 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 192:
- The host proposed divers puritanical fancies—nay, once hinted at a head of Cromwell himself; but the hostess overruled all these proposals, and stood firm by the Sun.
-
- Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid (often used by way of reproach or contempt).
Quotations
Mrs. Barrymore is of interest to me. She is a heavy, solid person, very limited, intensely respectable, and inclined to be puritanical. You could hardly conceive a less emotional subject. Yet I have told you how, on the first night here, I heard her sobbing bitterly, and since then I have more than once observed traces of tears upon her face. Some deep sorrow gnaws ever at her heart. Sometimes I wonder if she has a guilty memory which haunts her, and sometimes I suspect Barrymore of being a domestic tyrant.
—A. Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Translations
of or pertaining to the Puritans
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precise in observance of legal or religious requirements
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Noun
puritanical (plural puritanicals)
- One who holds puritanical attitudes.
Anagrams
- unpiratical