Dictionaries of the Scots Language
Dictionars o the Scots Leid

Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

Hide Quotations Hide Etymology

Abbreviations Cite this entry

About this entry:
First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PURIFY, v. Also †peerify (ne.Sc. 1773 Fergusson Poems (S.T.S.) II. 153). Sc. form and usage in Sc. Law: to fulfil or carry out (a condition), bring an agreement or the like into operation, by complying with a proviso in it. Obs. in Eng. in 17th c.Sc. 1711 S.C. Misc. I. 62:
The doctor . . . having now taken the oath to her Majesty, and so purified the condition of the sentence, hath undoubted right and title.Sc. 1754 Erskine Principles iii. vii. § 9:
Obligations, where the condition is not purified, or the term of payment not come within the seven years.Sc. 1861 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. 596:
A conditional obligation, dependent on an event which may never happen, has no obligatory force until the condition be purified.Sc. 1898 W. K. Morton Manual 181:
Their very existence is dependent upon the condition being fulfilled (technically, purified).Sc. 1927 Gloag and Henderson Intro. Law Scot. 29:
A condition is termed potestative when it may be purified by an act which one or other of the parties has the power to do. . . . It is a general rule in the construction of wills that if a legacy is given on a condition which is partly potestative, it is held to be purified if the legatee has done all that he could to purify it, though he have failed.