cleanse

An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

[T]he famous Ganges: whoſe vnknowne head, pleaſant ſtreames, and long extent, haue amongſt thoſe Heathen Inhabitants, (by the Tradition of their Forefathers) gained a beliefe of clenſing all ſuch ſinnes, as the bodies of thoſe that waſh therein brought with them: …