rid

rid, clear, unburden, disabuse, purge are comparable when they mean to set a person or thing free of something that encumbers.

Rid is a rather general term but is likely to refer to concrete or specific matters which are burdensome or pestiferous

{

England had in the meantime ridded herself of the Stuarts, worried along under the Hanoverians— Repplier

}

{

a lazy man's expedient for ridding himself of the trouble of thinking and deciding— Cardozo

}

Clear is likely to be used to refer to tangible matters which obstruct progress, clutter an area, or block vision

{

wars which . . . enabled the United States first to clear its own territory of foreign troops— Bemis

}

{

rose from the food she had barely tasted and began to clear the table— Glasgow

}

and may be used also in relation to ideas that hinder progress

{

of service to his fellow Methodists in clearing away obstructions to modern thinking— H. K. Rowe

}

Unburden typically implies a freeing of oneself from something taxing or something distressing the mind or spirit, in the latter situation often by confessing, revealing, or frankly discussing

{

insisted that he unburden himself of most of the weighty chores that go with the job of majority leader— Time

}

{

conquers his own submissiveness and unburdens himself, before his domineering wife, of all the accumulated resentment and dislike of years—5. M. Fitzgerald

}

Disabuse is appropriately chosen to refer to freeing the mind from an erroneous notion or an attitude or feeling making clear straightforward thought difficult

{

if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, hypocrisy, and superstition— Adams

}

{

neither familiarity with the history and institutions of Old World nations nor contact with them during two wars disabused the average American of his feeling of superiority— Commager

}

Purge may refer to cleansing out of or purification from whatever is impure or alien or extrinsic

{

purged of all its unorthodox views— Shaw

}

{

the room had never quite been purged of the bad taste of preceding generations— Edmund Wilson

}

In political matters it may suggest ruthless elimination

{

the dictator has purged academic faculties of every savant suspected of being opposed to his regime— H. M. Jones

}

Analogous words: *free, release, liberate: *exterminate, extirpate, eradicate, uproot: *abolish, extinguish