PURITAN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Puritan mean? 

• PURITAN (noun)
  The noun PURITAN has 3 senses:

1. a member of a group of English Protestants who in the 16th and 17th centuries thought that the Protestant Reformation under Elizabeth was incomplete and advocated the simplification and regulation of forms of worship

2. someone who adheres to strict religious principles; someone opposed to sensual pleasures

3. a person excessively concerned about propriety and decorum

  Familiarity information: PURITAN used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PURITAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A member of a group of English Protestants who in the 16th and 17th centuries thought that the Protestant Reformation under Elizabeth was incomplete and advocated the simplification and regulation of forms of worship

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("Puritan" is a kind of...):

Protestant (an adherent of Protestantism)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Someone who adheres to strict religious principles; someone opposed to sensual pleasures

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("puritan" is a kind of...):

abstainer; ascetic (someone who practices self denial as a spiritual discipline)

Derivation:

puritanic; puritanical (morally rigorous and strict)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A person excessively concerned about propriety and decorum

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

prude; puritan

Hypernyms ("puritan" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

Derivation:

puritanic (morally rigorous and strict)

puritanical (exaggeratedly proper)

 Context examples 

In ordinary life, he was a strict Puritan—a silent, gloomy fellow.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Right here, I think, entered the austere conscience of my Puritan ancestry, impelling me toward lurid deeds and sanctioning even murder as right conduct.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)