Dictionary

lustrate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /ˈlʌstɹeɪt/
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From Latin lustrātus (“lustrated”), perfect passive participle of lustrō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from lustrum (“ritual purification”) + -ō (first conjugation verb-forming suffix), q.v. In reference to imparting luster, further via senses of Middle French lustre, from Old Italian lustro.

Meanings

1. (transitive) Synonym of purify, to ritually cleanse or renew, particularly to do so with a propitiatory offering or (historical) the lustration, quinquennial ritual of the Roman censor to cleanse the city after a census.
   • We must purge, and cleanse, and lustrate the whole city. c. 1650, Henry Hammond, Miscellaneous Theological Works..., Vol. 3, Sermon 23, p. 503 (1850 ed.)
   • "Well," said Hypatia, more and more listlessly; "it might be more prudent to show them first the fairer and more graceful side of the old Myths... I wish to lustrate them afresh for the service of the gods." 1853, Charles Kingsley, chapter 20, in Hypatia:
   • Mid-zenith hangs the fascinated day In wind-lustrated hollows crystalline. 1909, Edith Wharton, “An Autumn Sunset”, in Artemis to Actaeon and Other Poems:
2. (ambitransitive, with 'through') Synonym of pass through, traverse.
3. (obsolete, transitive) Synonym of look, look over, survey.
4. (obsolete, transitive) Synonym of luster, to impart luster to, to make lustrous.

Forms

Deriveds

lustrable

Synonyms

purify · look · look over · luster · traverse · pass through · survey · particularly to do so with a propitiatory offering or · to ritually cleanse or renew · to impart luster to · to make lustrous