emetic
Americanadjective
noun
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- emetically adverb
- hyperemetic adjective
Etymology
Origin of emetic
1650–60; < Latin emeticus < Greek emetikós, equivalent to émet ( os ) vomiting + -ikos -ic
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Bleeding, purges and emetics were still used to cure disease.
From Literature
Treatment involved a “toxic arsenal of emetics, laxatives, diuretics, and expectorants” as well as “lances, leeches, and blisters.”
From Washington Post
The word itself – meaningless, infantile, a bit 80s and decidedly naff – is emetic enough without the inefficiency, the pointlessness, the utterly wasted time and opportunity of a procedure that fixes precisely nothing.
From The Guardian
The next night, Rhodes began vomiting again - “you’re pretty coherent, you go in and out of it” - and the emetic foetus reappeared.
From The Guardian
A doctor gave him a strong drug called an emetic, which made him vomit up the ball.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
