purgern.

c1400 Omnis Plantacio (Egerton) l. 2613 in Wks. Lollard Preacher (2001) 127 Þer weren in seynt Denys tyme prestis and dekenes, to whom it perteynede..to liȝte, purge and make perfit...And so þese ben clepid liȝters, purgers and makynge perfit.

c1475 Wisdom (Folger) (1969) 962 Yit thes do not only synnys awey, But very contrycyon..Þat ys purger and clenser of synne.

1508 J. Fisher Treat. Penyt. Psalmes sig. gg.iii^v Penaunce whiche is the very purger of synne.

1562 T. Becon Pomaunder of Prayer (ed. 2) 68 Com o purger of sinnes, healer and curer of woundes.

a1616 W. Shakespeare Julius Caesar (1623) ii. i. 180 We shall be call'd Purgers, not Murderers. View more context for this quotation

1641 S. Marshall Serm. Fast 40 Bee yee purgers and preservers of our Religion.

1739 A. R. Select Contempl. & Medit. ix. 46 O come, thou purger of all pollutions and healer of all spiritual wounds and diseases.

1792 T. Taylor tr. Hymns Orpheus 158 Sprung from the head of Jove, of splendid mien, Purger of evils, all-victorious queen.

1849 Times 24 Sept. 5/4 The dense smoke..is considered a most powerful disinfecting agent and a thorough purger of all bad smells.

1883 Cent. Mag. Mar. 643 In the same year came the great purger of towns—fire.

1907 A. Lang Hist. Scotl. IV. ii. 35 The purgers of the Kirk were not subjected to the approval of the Privy Council.

1938 Sun (Baltimore) 20 June 3/2 (heading) Purgers reported purged in Ukraine as Soviet foes.

2003 Moscow News (Nexis) 8 Oct. 39 The ‘purgers’ themselves prefer to call it restructuring, streamlining or ‘routine personnel change’.

1558 W. Bullein Govt. Healthe f. lxxii^v It is an herbe moste temperate betwene hoate and colde, of an excellent vertue.., a purger of Melancoly, a quieter of the Frencie, a purger of the vrine.

1562 W. Turner Bk. Natures Bathes Eng. f. 10, in 2nd Pt. Herball Let the sicke purge him selfe with cassia fistula or suche..lenitiue or gentell purger.

1648 T. Winyard Midsummer-moone 2 This purger is the only scammony, the rest somewhat milder simples.

1745 Philos. Trans. 1744–5 (Royal Soc.) 43 518 Of the Pear called Imny-Winter.., he observes..that if a Thief steal it, he would incur a speedy Vengeance; it being a furious Purger.

1798 M. O'Ryan Advice in Consumption of Lungs 98 This management, if not opposed by emetics, stomach purgers, and other preposterous remedies, unhappily too much in use, generally succeeds in quieting the Cough.

1853 J. W. Metcalf Homoeopathic Provings 291 Riverius..praises it [sc. colocynth] as an excellent purger of the brain..in all diseases not inflammatory.

1604 Abp. G. Abbot Reasons Dr. Hill Vnmasked 432 There was a treatise Concerning bookes to bee corrected, put out by Frier Gregory..intituling himselfe Purger of the bookes at Naples.

1624 T. Gataker Discuss. Transubstant. 39 The Popish purgers authorised to maine and mangle Authors.

1692 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses II. 218 A Licenser of Popish books, a purger of orthodox passages against Popery, Papists, Arminianisme.

a1848 I. D'Israeli Curiosities of Lit. (1875) 179/2 The purgers and castrators, as they were termed, or, as Milton calls them, ‘the executioners of books’, by omitting or interpolating passages, made an author say, or unsay, what the inquisitors chose.

1976 P. J. Beumont et al. in Psychol. Med. 6 617 The first group consisted of subjects who had become emaciated solely because of dieting, food refusal and excessive exercising (‘dieters’); the second of those who had used additional means to bring about weight loss such, as habitual vomiting and the abuse of purgatives (‘vomiters and purgers’).

1985 Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 42 1014 The anorectic patients were divided into subgroups of 19 abstainers and 46 vomiters and purgers.

1997 Jrnl. Counseling Psychol. 44 67 The Weight Management Questionnaire..is one of the few..that defines several eating behavior groups simultaneously (e.g., bulimics, bingers, purgers, and normals).

2000 S. Gilbert Counselling for Eating Disorders i. 9 Several authors have suggested that the purgers have more body image disturbance and more anxiety about eating than do the non-purgers.