MEANING
1. Attempt to drive out a supposed evil spirit through ritual.
2. Free oneself or something from a persistent fear, memory, or harmful influence.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- exorcise a spirit
- exorcise the house
On the page
The priest was asked to exorcise the house.
Word forms
- Base
- exorcise
- Past tense
- exorcised
- Past participle
- exorcised
- Present participle
- exorcising
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- exorcise
- Present continuous
- am/is/are exorcising
- Present perfect
- have/has exorcised
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been exorcising
- Past
- exorcised
- Past continuous
- was/were exorcising
- Past perfect
- had exorcised
- Past perfect continuous
- had been exorcising
- Future
- will exorcise
- Future continuous
- will be exorcising
- Future perfect
- will have exorcised
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been exorcising
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: horror / gothic. Forms: exorcise; exorcises; exorcised; exorcised; exorcising Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: atmosphere, description. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: exorcises.
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