perfectionist

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.

One pretending to perfection; an enthusiast in religion.--Webster.


Among the highest puritan perfectionists, you shall find people of fifty, threescore, and fourscore years old, not able to give that account of their faith which you might have had heretofore from a boy of nine or ten.--South's Sermons, Vol. IV.

There be met a perfectionist, ready for heaven,

Only waiting till Heaven was willing;

And he found him one-half a perfect fool,

The other half a perfect villain.--Devil's New Walk, Boston, 1848.

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