Webster's English Dictionary

Enter the word to look up:

puritan

pu.ri.tan \'pyu.r-*t-*n\ \.pyu.r-*-'tan-i-k*l\ \-k(*-)le-\ 
   \'pyu.r-*t-*n-.iz-*m\ n [prob. fr. LL puritas purity] cap  1: a member of a 
   16th and 17th century Protestant group in England and New  England opposing 
   as unscriptural the traditional and formal usages of the Church of England 
   2: one who practices or preaches a more rigorous or professedly purer moral 
    code than that which prevails often cap  often cap  - puritan aj