[f. CLEANSE v.]
1. The action of the vb. CLEANSE in its various senses; cleaning, purification, acquittal.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., Mark i. 44. For ðinre clænsunga [c. 1160 Hatton Gosp. clænsunge].
c. 1200. Winteney Rule St. Benet (1888), 65. On sæternes dæȝ clænsunga do.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 25889. Þe fire o clensing.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clx. (1495), 708. The clensinge of hempe or of flexe.
c. 1568. in H. Campbell, Love-lett. Mary Q. Scots (1824), App. 47. The counsale haldin for the cleansing of Bothwell.
1611. Bible, Mark i. 44. Offer for thy clensing those things which Moses commanded.
1673. Temple, Observ. United Prov., iii. 153 (R.). Amsterdam will ever oppose the opening and cleansing of the old Channel of the Rhine.
1842. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., VI. vi. 55. Almost all religions have their outward cleansings.
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., V. liii. 28. A verdict of acquittal, a ‘cleansing by assize’ as it was termed.
2. concr. The dirt, dust or refuse removed in cleaning anything.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1653), 689. Trochili … are greedy of these Worms or clensings of the Crocodiles.
1611. Cotgr., Curailles de maison, the dust, filth, sweepings or cleansing, of houses.
1632. Sherwood, s.v. Bean, The shalings, chaffe, or cleansings of Beanes.
b. The lochia or discharges after childbirth; a rustic name for the afterbirth of cattle.
1655. L. Thetford, Markham’s Perfect Horseman, 10. By no means let the Mare eat her cleansing.
1810. Treat. Live Stock, in N. W. Linc. Gloss. (E. D. S.), s.v., The after-birth; in the north it is termed the cleansing.
1860. Mayne, Exp. Lex., Cleansings, a popular term for the Lochia.
1884. Chester Gloss. (E. D. S.), Clansing or Cleansing, the placenta or after-birth of an animal.
3. attrib. and Comb.
1335. in Riley, Mem. Lond. (1868), 194. [One] clensingbecche … 4d.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 109. Some of it ich had in the clensyng wéeke.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., Cleansing-vat, a vessel in which the fermentation of beer is concluded; the yeast running out of the bung-hole, and being kept full by supply from a store-vat.
