Săn'c-ti-fy, v. t.
v. t. [imp. & p. p. SANCTIFIED; p. pr. & vb. n. SANCTIFYING.] [Fr. sanctifier, Pr. sanctificar, sanctificar, Sp. & Pg. santificar, It. santificare, Lat. sanctificare, from sanctus, holy, and facere, to make.]
Sense 1. To make sacred or holy; to set apart to a holy or religious use; to consecrate by appropriate rites; to hallow.
God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it. Gen. ii. 3. Moses . . . sanctified Aaron and his garments. Levit. viii. 30.
Sense 2. To make holy or free from sin; to cleanse from moral corruption and pollution; to make fit for the service of God, and the society and employments of heaven.
Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. John xvii. 17.
Sense 3. To make efficient as the means of holiness; to render productive of holiness or piety.
Those judgments of God are the more welcome as a means which his mercy hath sanctified so to me as to make me repent of that unjust act. K. Charles.
Sense 4. To impart sacredness, venerableness, inviolability, title to reverence and respect, or the like, to; to secure from violation; to give sanction to.
The holy man, amazed at what he saw, Made haste to sanctify the bliss by law. Dryden.
Truth guards the poet, sanctifies the line. Pope.