puritanical

English

Etymology

puritan +‎ -ical

Pronunciation
  • (UK) IPA(key): /pjʊəɹ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kəl/
  • (US) IPA(key): /pjɚ.ɪˈtæn.ɪ.kl̩/

Adjective

puritanical (comparative more puritanical, superlative most puritanical)

  1. Of or pertaining to the Puritans, or to their doctrines and practice.
  2. Precise in observance of legal or religious requirements; strict; overscrupulous; rigid (often used by way of reproach or contempt).

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.

—A. Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles

Translations

Noun

puritanical (plural puritanicals)

  1. One who holds puritanical attitudes.
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