patent medicine

noun

1. a medicine sold without a prescription in drugstores or by sales representatives, and usually protected by a trademark.

2. a medicine distributed by a company having a patent on its manufacture.

patent medicine

noun

1. a medicine protected by a patent and available without a doctor's prescription

Word History and Origins

Origin of patent medicine¹

First recorded in 1760–70

Example Sentences

The school, which occupied a massive home that patent medicine entrepreneur and Civil War surgeon Col.

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Kola nuts circulated through Europe and the Americas but did not find a widespread audience until the 19th century, when the craze for patent medicines encouraged entrepreneurs to bottle vigor wherever it could be found.

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Popular since the 1840s, root beer, which, like so many of America’s sodas, straddled the line between patent medicine and soothing nonalcoholic libation, was enjoyed as a hot beverage or as a carbonated soda.

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Decades ago, people could hawk dangerous patent medicines and promise benefits — even when their concoctions might have catastrophic consequences.

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As one may expect, sketchy patent medicines and doctor-prescribed Prohibition whiskey are also in the mix.

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