[ad. N.-T. Gr. καθαρισμός purification, f. καθαρίζειν to make clean.]
1. The doctrine of the Catharists.
1574. Whitgift, Def. Answ., I. Wks. 1851, I. 174. That very perfection … which you challenge unto yourselves … well deserveth the name of Catharism.
1575. T. Cartwright, 2nd Replie, in Whitgift’s Wks., 1852, II. 61. Uncharitable suspicions of papism, anabaptism, Catharism, Donatism, &c.
1832. S. Maitland, Facts & Documents, 362. It was reported that he had imbibed your Catharism.
1838. G. S. Faber, An Inquiry, 153. The mode wherein the Canons of Orleans were converted to Catharism.
2. Chem. The process of making a surface chemically clean.
1869. Sci. Opin., 17 March, 380/2. Mr. Tomlinson explained the sense in which he applied the new term Catharism … distinguishing between ‘clean’ in its ordinary and its chemical sense.
