puritanical

UK /pjʊəɹ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kəl/ US /pjɚ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kl̩/
adj 3noun 1

Definitions

adj

1

Of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.

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.

2

Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid (often used by way of reproach or contempt).

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.

Exogamy […] has few or none of the quaint superstitions which lend a certain picturesque charm to totemism. It is, so to say, a stern Puritanical institution. Its rigid logic, its complex rules, its elaborate terminology, its labyrinthine systems of relationship, it presents an aspect somewhat hard and repellant.

noun

1

One who holds puritanical attitudes.

adj

1

Alternative letter-case form of puritanical.

President Upham delivered a lengthy speech which covered the entire history of the Society along with some Puritanical sniffing.

[…] in his writings he [Benjamin Franklin] took an earthy, practical view of sex that outraged Puritanical sentiment.

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