Meanings
purell1
- slanguncountablealcohol-based hand sanitizer gel.
Purell2
- A brand of hand sanitizer containing alcohol.
1 more example
In the Season 11 premiere of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David’s HBO comedy of ill manners, chaos breaks out during a party (specifically, a premature funeral) at Albert Brooks’s house when Larry finds a closet stuffed with Purell, toilet paper and KN95 masks, exposing the “Lost in America” director as having been a “Covid hoarder.”
2022 January 7, James Poniewozik, “Wondering When the Pandemic Will End? On TV, It Already Has.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- uncountableAlternative letter-case form of purell (any alcohol-based hand sanitizer)
Origin
purell · noun
Trademark genericization, from the brand name Purell.
Full word history & related roots →Purell · proper noun, noun
The brand name of a brand of a particular alcoholic sanitizing gel.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
purell. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/purell
“purell.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/purell. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “purell,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/purell.
Source: purell on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.