sanctify

From Anglo-Norman seintefier, from Old French saintefier, from Late Latin sānctificō, from Latin sānctus (“holy”) + faciō (“do, make”). Form altered to conform with Latin.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈsæŋk.tɪ.faɪ/

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sanctify (third-person singular simple present sanctifies, present participle sanctifying, simple past and past participle sanctified)

1. (transitive) To make holy; to consecrate; to set aside for sacred or ceremonial use.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 2:3:

     And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

2. (transitive) To free from sin; to purify.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Corinthians 6:11:

     And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ephesians 5:25-26:

     Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.

3. (transitive) To make acceptable or useful under religious law or practice.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Timothy 4:4-5:

     For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.

4. (transitive) To endorse with religious sanction.

• (to make holy): consecrate, hallow; see also Thesaurus:consecrate
• (to free from sin): cleanse, purify

• * (antonym(s) of “to make holy”): profane; see also Thesaurus:desecrate

• sanctification
• sanctifier

• “sanctify”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “sanctify”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.