From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpuritanpu‧ri‧tan /ˈpjʊərətən $ ˈpjʊr-/ noun [countable] 1 STRICTsomeone with strict moral views who thinks that pleasure is unnecessary and wrong2 → Puritan —puritan adjective the Puritan work ethic
Examples from the Corpus
puritan• It might be heresy to say this in a modern world, but the Profitboss is a puritan.• He was neither a hypocrite nor a puritan.• Of course I was not - at least I told myself I was not - a puritan.• She's hardly the type for an old puritan like you, Karelius.• He remained a Scandinavian puritan, less humourous than Bergman, certainly more covert about sexuality generally.• The playboy and the puritan made an odd couple, but they could use each other.PuritanPuritanRRCa member of a Protestant religious group in the 16th and 17th centuries, who wanted to make religion simpler → puritanOrigin Puritan (1500-1600) Late Latin puritas “purity”, from Latin purus; → PURE 