Ablution

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ablution \Ab*lu`tion\, n. [L. ablutio, fr. abluere: cf. F.
     ablution. See {Abluent}.]
     1. The act of washing or cleansing; specifically, the washing
        of the body, or some part of it, as a religious rite.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. The water used in cleansing. "Cast the ablutions in the
        main." --Pope.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (R. C. Ch.) A small quantity of wine and water, which is
        used to wash the priest's thumb and index finger after the
        communion, and which then, as perhaps containing portions
        of the consecrated elements, is drunk by the priest.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ablution
       n : the ritual washing of a priest's hands or of sacred vessels

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  34 Moby Thesaurus words for "ablution":
     cleaning out, douche, douching, elution, elutriation, enema, flush,
     flushing, flushing out, irrigation, lathering, lavabo, lavage,
     lavation, laving, mopping, mopping up, rinse, rinsing, scouring,
     scrub, scrubbing, scrubbing up, shampoo, soaping, sponge, sponging,
     swabbing, wash, washing, washing up, washout, washup, wiping up
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Ablution
     or washing, was practised, (1.) When a person was initiated into
     a higher state: e.g., when Aaron and his sons were set apart to
     the priest's office, they were washed with water previous to
     their investiture with the priestly robes (Lev. 8:6).
     
       (2.) Before the priests approached the altar of God, they were
     required, on pain of death, to wash their hands and their feet
     to cleanse them from the soil of common life (Ex. 30:17-21). To
     this practice the Psalmist alludes, Ps. 26:6.
     
       (3.) There were washings prescribed for the purpose of
     cleansing from positive defilement contracted by particular
     acts. Of such washings eleven different species are prescribed
     in the Levitical law (Lev. 12-15).
     
       (4.) A fourth class of ablutions is mentioned, by which a
     person purified or absolved himself from the guilt of some
     particular act. For example, the elders of the nearest village
     where some murder was committed were required, when the murderer
     was unknown, to wash their hands over the expiatory heifer which
     was beheaded, and in doing so to say, "Our hands have not shed
     this blood, neither have our eyes seen it" (Deut. 21:1-9). So
     also Pilate declared himself innocent of the blood of Jesus by
     washing his hands (Matt. 27:24). This act of Pilate may not,
     however, have been borrowed from the custom of the Jews. The
     same practice was common among the Greeks and Romans.
     
       The Pharisees carried the practice of ablution to great
     excess, thereby claiming extraordinary purity (Matt. 23:25).
     Mark (7:1-5) refers to the ceremonial ablutions. The Pharisees
     washed their hands "oft," more correctly, "with the fist" (R.V.,
     "diligently"), or as an old father, Theophylact, explains it,
     "up to the elbow." (Compare also Mark 7:4; Lev. 6:28; 11: 32-36;
     15:22) (See {WASHING}.)