puritan

UK /ˈpjʊə.ɹɪ.tən/ US /ˈpjʊ.ɹɪ.tən/

noun 2adj 2

Definitions

noun

A puritanical person.

These new puritans have turned out to be surprisingly unskilled and inexperienced - very different from my generation who invented wife-swapping, orgies and free love in the late Sixties and early Seventies.

adj

Acting or behaving according to the Puritan morals (e.g. propagating modesty), especially with regard to pleasure, nudity and sex; ascetic.

A pietistic protestantism, rigid, self-righteous, unintellectual, obsessed with puritan morality to the point where hypocrisy was its automatic companion, dominated this desolate epoch.

noun

A member of a particular Protestant religious sect advocating greater purity and piety.

Collocations

ADJ.

based, kind, shy, unintellectual

VERB + PURITAN

held, obsessed, take, total

PURITAN + NOUN

i'm, morality

PREP.

on, with

ADV.

such

Thesaurus

Synonyms

noun — a person excessively concerned about propriety and decorum

prude

Antonyms

Idioms & Phrases

Example Bank

Wiktionary

A pietistic protestantism, rigid, self-righteous, unintellectual, obsessed with puritan morality to the point where hypocrisy was its automatic companion, dominated this desolate epoch.

Wiktionary

It’s a seedy time of the night and Jacky is telling me about sailors and their needs. A man called P. C. Alexander, an ex-Indian High-Commissioner in London has cleaned up Madras. There’s a very Purit

Wiktionary

Chardonnay is very malleable, but once we get the fruit in we actually take a very Puritan approach to it.

Wiktionary

I learned to work from my grandfather, who held a very Puritan kind of work ethic.

Wiktionary

Tom is a puritan.

Tatoeba · #1486076

Usage Notes

i Register

In some senses, puritan is marked as derogatory. Watch for register when choosing this word.

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