Puritanical
Contents
English
Adjective
Puritanical (comparative more Puritanical, superlative most Puritanical)
- Of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.
- Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid; — often used by way of reproach or contempt.
Adverbs for Puritanical
painfully; primly; sternly; unyieldingly; inflexibly; unbendingly; rigidly; priggishly; sedately; quietly; stoically; gravely; severely; strictly; austerely; obviously; silently; rigorously; harshly; seriously; learnedly; justly; fairly; ascetically; precisely; forbiddingly; dourly; inexorably; uncompromisingly; stiffly; dreadfully.
Thesaurus
Albigensian, Catharist, Franciscan, Quakerish, Sabbatarian, Trappist, Victorian, Waldensian, abstinent, anchoritic, ascetic, austere, bigoted, censorious, choicy, choosy, conscientious, creedbound, critical, demure, discriminating, discriminative, dogmatic, dour, eremitic, evangelical, exacting, fastidious, firm, flagellant, fundamentalist, hard, hidebound, hyperorthodox, impliable, inexorable, inflexible, iron, ironbound, ironclad, ironhanded, literalist, literalistic, mendicant, meticulous, mid-Victorian, muscle-bound, narrow, obdurate, obstinate, old-maidish, orthodox, overmodest, particular, perfectionistic, picky, precise, precisianist, precisianistic, priggish, prim, procrustean, prudish, punctilious, purist, puristic, puritan, puritanic, relentless, rigid, rigorist, rigoristic, rigorous, rockbound, sanctimonious, scrupulous, selective, self-denying, sensitive, smug, staunch, stiff, stiff-necked, straightlaced, straitlaced, strict, stubborn, stuffy, unbending, uncompromising, unrelenting, unyielding, wedded to poverty
Etymology
Formation from puritan and -ical suffix to produce definition 1.
Pronunciation
- (US) IPA: /pjɚ.ɪ.tæn.ɪ.kl/, /pjɚ.ɪ.tæn.ik.l̩/, SAMPA: /pj@`.I.t{n.I.kl/, /pj@`.I.t{n.ik.l=/
- (UK) IPA: /pjʊə(ɹ).ɪ.tæn.ɪ.kəl/, SAMPA: /pjU@(r\).I.t{n.I.k@l/
Quotations
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. I have always felt that there was something singular and questionable in this man's character, but the adventure of last night brings all my suspicions to a head.—A. Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles
