depurgatory

English

Etymology

From Latin dēpurgō (“to cleanse, purify”) + -atory.

Adjective

depurgatory (comparative more depurgatory, superlative most depurgatory)

1. Serving to purge; tending to cleanse or purify.
   • 1749, Peter Whitfield, An essay upon the Supremacy and Infallibility pretended to by the Church of Rome, page 180:

     Our SAVIOUR, Luke, 16. in the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, describes the former as passing […] directly to the Place of eternal Torments, without mention of the purgatorial Fire; and Lazarus is described as being carried […] directly to Abraham's Bosom, without any mention of those depurgatory Flames […]

   • 1849, Leon C. Chesley, quoting William Tyler Smith, Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy, published 1978, page 28:

     “It deserves to be borne in mind, that the depurgatory functions ought, in order to preserve health, to be increased during gestation, as the debris of the foetal, as well as the maternal system, have to be eliminated by the organs of the mother. […] ”

   • 2008, Carol C. Donley, Martin Kohn, Return to The House of God: Medical Resident Education, 1978-2008, page 47:

     Patients who suffered from typical unilateral pulsatile headaches with nausea weren't diagnosed with migraine, but with so-called liver outbursts […] and "treated" with gallbladder depurgatory drugs.