puritanism
pyoo ruh tuh ni zuhm
- n the beliefs and practices characteristic of Puritans (most of whom were Calvinists who wished to purify the Church of England of its Catholic aspects)
- n strictness and austerity in conduct and religion
- For decades, the French have relished any opportunity to mock Americans for their supposed childish Yankee puritanism when it comes to matters of sex.
- Milan Mayor Letizia Moratti called the new law a "response to an emergency" rather than some newfound whiff of puritanism.
- The heresy was aided by the corruption of the clergy of the timeagainst whose wenching and venality the puritanism of the "Pure'' was an attractive contrast.