You searched for: “purify”
petrify, putrefy, purify
petrify (PET ruh figh") (verb)
1. To change into stone or a stony substance: Over thousands of years, the buried tree trunk will gradually petrify into rock.

Chad's icy glare served to petrify Debora and she was unable to run away.

2. To confound with amazement or fear: The harrowing tales of the author will petrify Janine and she will not want to walk in the graveyard after dark ever again.
3. To deaden or to stifle: Betty had the feeling that the long lecture was going to petrify her mind because it was so boring.
putrefy (PYOO truh figh") (verb)
To create a state of rottenness, physically or morally: If you bury the garbage, it will putrefy and eventually become compost.

Nathan was so evil he seemed to putrefy everything around him.

purify (PYOOR uh figh") (verb)
1. To sanitize or to clean: The brisk winds seemed to purify the air in the city.
2. To free from guilt or blemish: Rosetta's confession that she took her mother's ring helped to purify her conscience.

Howard wants to purify the air because the old cabbage has started to putrefy and to stink up the place and if he smells it for very long, he's afraid his brain will petrify.

This entry is located in the following unit: Confusing Words Clarified: Group P; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. + (page 5)
purify (verb), purifies; purified; purifying
1. To cleanse, refine, decontaminate: There are botanists who say trees help to purify the air.
2. To redeem or to sanctify. Priests usually purify themselves before religious ceremonies.
This entry is located in the following units: fac-, facil-, fact-, feas-, -feat, -fect, -feit, -facient, -faction, -fic-, -fy, -ficate, -fication (page 29) -fy (page 6) purg- (page 2)
A unit related to: “purify”
purg-
(Latin: clean, cleanse, purify)
cathar-, cathart-, cathars-
(Greek: to purge, to purify, or to cleanse; purification; cleansing)