The Collaborative International Dictionary
Unclean \Un*clean"\, a. [AS. uncl?ne. See Unnot, and Clean.]
Not clean; foul; dirty; filthy.
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Ceremonially impure; needing ritual cleansing.
He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days.
--Num. xix. 11. -
Morally impure. ``Adultery of the heart, consisting of inordinate and unclean affections.''
--Perkins. [1913 Webster] -- Un*clean"ly, adv. -- Un*clean"ness, n.Unclean animals (Script.), those which the Israelites were forbidden to use for food.
Unclean spirit (Script.), a wicked spirit; a demon.
--Mark i. 27.
Wikipedia
In English translations of the Bible, unclean spirit is a common rendering of Greek pneuma akatharton (πνεῦμα ἀκάθαρτον; plural pneumata akatharta , which in its single occurrence in the Septuagint translates Hebrew .
The Greek term appears 21 times in the New Testament in the context of demonic possession. It is also translated into English as spirit of impurity or more loosely as "evil spirit." The Latin equivalent is spiritus immundus.
The association of physical and spiritual cleanliness is, if not universal, widespread and continues into the 21st century: "To be virtuous is to be physically clean and free from the impurity that is sin," notes an article in Scientific American published 10 March 2009. Some scholarship seeks to differentiate between "unclean spirit" and "evil spirit" ( pneuma ponêron) or "demon" ( daimonion).
Usage examples of "unclean spirit".
Germain d'Auxerre gave her, and holding a taper, which the devil tries to extinguish, but which is protected from the breath of the unclean spirit by a miraculous little tabernacle.
At my back, it seemed, an unclean spirit capered along, dancing, jigging, bopping in its glee at having me so close at hand.
For it is the practice of Scripture and of speech to name every unclean spirit Diabolus, from Dia, that is Two, and Bolus, that is Morsel.
As also of an Unclean person in a notorious degree, they used to say he had an Unclean Spirit.
The filthy obscenities voiced by the creature, its knowledge of all languages, the foul stench noted by one witnessall are signs of the presence of an unclean spirit.
He praised God, and thanked Grettir for overcoming the unclean spirit.