detersive

American  

[dih-tur-siv] / dɪˈtɜr sɪv /

adjective

1. cleansing; detergent.

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noun

1. a detersive agent or medicine.

Other Word Forms

• detersively adverb
• detersiveness noun

Etymology

Origin of detersive

1580–90; < Middle French détersif < Latin dēters ( us ) (past participle of dētergēre; see deterge) + -if -ive

Example Sentences

The wood of it is full of sap, and as it burns sends forth a very biting smoke; and the ashes of it thoroughly burnt are so acrimonious, that they make a lye extremely detersive.

From Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies by Plutarch

In the first case, we see evidence of exanthematic diseases, which present only the lightest forms of detersive disorders, such as measles, scarlatina, or that more serious one, from its pustulous form, the small-pox.

From On the cattle plague: or, Contagious typhus in horned cattle. Its history, origin, description, and treatment by Bourguignon, Honor?

The Patient should gargle himself after the Discharge of it with the detersive, or cleansing Gargarism Nº.

From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)

If, again, grief were an antiseptic for future misdeeds or a detersive for past faults, one might again understand, but now it falls indifferently on the bad and on the good; it is blind.

From En Route by Huysmans, J.-K. (Joris-Karl)