Definition of "puritanical" [puritanical]

• Rigorous in religious observance; marked by stern morality. (adjective)
• Of, relating to, or characteristic of the Puritans. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "While secretly they laughed at what they termed her puritanical notions, they were shrewd enough to realize that they could hardly afford to snub a woman whose husband occupied so prominent a position in the world of affairs."
• "In counter-protest, newspaper editor Giuliano Ferrara hung up underwear in a Milan auditorium against what he calls a puritanical drive to oust the premier."
• "Not that Vance Corliss was anybody's fool, nor that his had been an anchorite's existence; but that his upbringing, rather, had given his life a certain puritanical bent."