lustrate

present singular third person lustrates · participle present lustrating · participle past lustrated · past lustrated

1. transitiveSynonym of purify, to ritually cleanse or renew, particularly to do so with a propitiatory offering or (historical) the lustration, quinquennial ritual of the Roman censor to cleanse the city after a census.

   We must purge, and cleanse, and lustrate the whole city.

   c. 1650, Henry Hammond, Miscellaneous Theological Works..., Vol. 3, Sermon 23, p. 503 (1850 ed.)

   2 more examples

   "Well," said Hypatia, more and more listlessly; "it might be more prudent to show them first the fairer and more graceful side of the old Myths... I wish to lustrate them afresh for the service of the gods."

   1853, Charles Kingsley, chapter 20, in Hypatia

   Mid-zenith hangs the fascinated day In wind-lustrated hollows crystalline.

   1909, Edith Wharton, “An Autumn Sunset”, in Artemis to Actaeon and Other Poems

   Synonyms: purify, to ritually cleanse or renew, particularly to do so with a propitiatory offering or

2. ambitransitiveSynonym of pass through, traverse.

   Synonyms: pass through, traverse

3. obsoletetransitiveSynonym of look, look over, survey.

   Synonyms: look, look over, survey

4. obsoletetransitiveSynonym of luster, to impart luster to, to make lustrous.

   Synonyms: luster, to impart luster to, to make lustrous