purgative

American  

[pur-guh-tiv] / ˈpɜr gə tɪv /

adjective

1. purging or cleansing, especially by causing evacuation of the bowels.

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noun

1. a purgative medicine or agent; cathartic.

purgative British  

/ ˈpɜːɡətɪv /

noun

1. a drug or agent for purging the bowels

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adjective

1. causing evacuation of the bowels; cathartic

Other Word Forms

• nonpurgative
  adjective
• unpurgative
  adjective
• nonpurgatively
  adverb
• purgatively
  adverb
• unpurgatively
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of purgative

1350–1400; < Late Latin pūrgātīvus ( see purgation, -ive); replacing Middle English purgatyf < Middle French < Late Latin, as above

Example Sentences

And how little does the Chymist teach the Philosopher of the Nature of Purgatition, if he only tells him that the Purgative Vertue of Medicines resides in their Salt?

From The Sceptical Chymist or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes, Touching the Spagyrist's Principles Commonly call'd Hypostatical; As they are wont to be Propos'd and Defended by the Generality of Alchymists. Whereunto is præmis'd Part of another Discourse relating to the same Subject. by Boyle, Robert

Purgative Medicines.—Salts, one ounce; Calomel, five grains; or Socotrine Aloes, two drachms for moderate sized dog.

From The Dog by Dinks

It is plain that the Active Life in Ruysbroeck’s system answers more or less to the Purgative Way, considered upon its affirmative and constructive side, as a building up of the heroic Christian character.

From Ruysbroeck by Underhill, Evelyn

First came the Purgative Exercises: the object of these was to cleanse and search out the very recesses of the soul; as fire separates gold from alloy.

From By What Authority? by Benson, Robert Hugh

He puts also the example of the Aloes, which if it be washt, looseth the Purgative vertue; or that which it hath, is but weake.

From Chocolate: or, An Indian Drinke By the wise and Moderate use whereof, Health is preserved, Sicknesse Diverted, and Cured, especially the Plague of the Guts; vulgarly called The New Disease ; Fluxes, Consumptions, & Coughs of the Lungs, with sundry other desperate Diseases. By it also, Conception is Caused, the Birth Hastened and facilitated, Beauty Gain'd and continued. by Wadsworth, James