Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To expel (an evil spirit), as by incantation, command, or prayer.
- transitive verb To eliminate or suppress (a malign influence or negative feeling, for example).
- transitive verb To free from or rid of an evil spirit, malign influence, or other harmful factor.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To expel by conjurations and religious or magical ceremonies; drive out by religious or magical agencies: as, to
exorcise evil spirits. - To purify from unclean spirits by adjurations and religious or magical ceremonies; deliver from the influence of malignant spirits or demons: as, to
exorcise a house. - To call up or forth, as a spirit; conjure up.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To cast out, as a devil, evil spirits, etc., by conjuration or summoning by a holy name, or by certain ceremonies; to expel (a demon) or to conjure (a demon) to depart out of a person possessed by one.
- transitive verb To deliver or purify from the influence of an evil spirit or demon.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To
drive out anevil spirit from aperson ,place orthing , especially by anincantation orprayer - verb To
rid a person, place or thing of an evil spirit
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb expel through adjuration or prayers
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I couldn't shake it off and I ended up wearing a shirt with their name on it to kind of exorcise the ghost, and I guess I did it by writing this song about it.
Mike Ragogna: A Tiger Suit, Junip & Great Companions: Conversations with KT Tunstall, Dar Williams, and José González, plus a KT Video Exclusive Mike Ragogna 2010
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Up to 15,000 children in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom and Cross River states alone have been branded witches by rogue pastors, who charge large sums to "exorcise" them....
Witch Children On The Steets Christopher 2008
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The reverend's tactics may be unusual — he's been known to leap on shop counters in order to "exorcise" cash registers — but his message of modest spending is increasingly mainstream.
Is The Mall Dead? 2008
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Up to 15,000 children in Nigeria's Akwa Ibom and Cross River states alone have been branded witches by rogue pastors, who charge large sums to "exorcise" them....
Archive 2008-11-01 Christopher 2008
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Thus he managed to cancel — I should probably say "exorcise" — his adolescent humiliation in that city, and some of the disappointments of his maturity as well.
The Immortal 2004
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Thus he managed to cancel — I should probably say "exorcise" — his adolescent humiliation in that city, and some of the disappointments of his maturity as well.
The Immortal 2004
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Finally, about Humanism, I would have thought that my use of the word "exorcise" suggested that Rabelais was indeed strongly attracted, and that the only way he could free himself from its trammels was by writing as he did.
The Rabelais Story Frame, Donald M. 1978
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The film will feature interviews with preachers from the churches that brand children witches or wizards and charge their parents to "exorcise" the spirits.
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The film will feature interviews with preachers from the churches that brand children witches or wizards and charge their parents to "exorcise" the spirits.
WN.com - Articles related to Survey: Limits Keep Teens From Bad Texting 2010
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The film will feature interviews with preachers from the churches that brand children witches or wizards and charge their parents to "exorcise" the spirits.
WN.com - Articles related to Survey: Limits Keep Teens From Bad Texting 2010
treeseed commented on the word exorcise
The free association is obvious here...I wish my mind would have been a little more creative...but there you have it. See Skipvia's Free Association List
February 4, 2008