physic

American  

[fiz-ik] / ˈfɪz ɪk /

noun

• physics
  plural

1. a medicine that purges; cathartic; laxative.

2. any medicine; a drug or medicament.

3. Archaic. the medical art or profession.

4. Obsolete. natural science.

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verb (used with object)

• physics,
  present (3rd person singular)
• physicked,
  past participle,  past
• physicking
  present participle

1. to treat with or act upon as a physic or medicine.

2. to work upon as a medicine does; relieve or cure.

physic British  

/ ˈfɪzɪk /

noun

1. rare a medicine or drug, esp a cathartic or purge

2. archaic the art or skill of healing

3. an archaic term for physics

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verb

1. archaic (tr) to treat (a patient) with medicine

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• physicky
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• physics
  plural

Participles

• physicking
  present
• physicked
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• physic
  simple
• physics
  simple
• have physicked
  perfect
• has physicked
  perfect
• am physicking
  progressive
• are physicking
  progressive
• is physicking
  progressive
• have been physicking
  perfect progressive
• has been physicking
  perfect progressive

Past

• physicked
  simple
• had physicked
  perfect
• was physicking
  progressive
• were physicking
  progressive
• had been physicking
  perfect progressive

Future

• will physic
  simple
• will have physicked
  perfect
• will be physicking
  progressive
• will have been physicking
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of physic

First recorded in 1250–1300; (for the noun) Middle English fisyk(e), phisik(e), from Old French fisique, from Latin physica “natural science” ( Medieval Latin: “medical science”), from Greek physikḗ “science of nature,” noun use of feminine form of physikós “pertaining to nature,” from phýs(is) physis + -ikos -ic; verb derivative of the noun

Explanation

These days, asking the pharmacist for a physic to relieve your constipation will probably get you a blank stare; it's an old-fashioned, rarely-used term for "laxative." Physic comes from the Latin word for "study of nature," so it's unclear how it came to mean a "purging medicine." An almost-synonym is "cathartic," although that word is usually used to describe an emotional purging- like a good cry- rather than physical one. Don't confuse physic with physics, the scientific study of the interaction between energy and matter, or psychic, someone who can read minds and see the future.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

physic physics physicked physicking

A spiritual adviser to Oprah Winfrey and purveyor of physic memorabilia online, Williamson spent about a year seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2023

Lord Sands in “Henry VIII”: ’Tis time to give ’em physic, their diseases are grown so catching.”

From Washington Post ● Apr. 16, 2020

Greenall’s Berkeley Square London Dry Gin summons, for him, “the atmosphere of an English physic garden in summer.”

From New York Times ● Dec. 11, 2012

Respectable practitioners of physic thought him brilliantly mad, philosophers thought him brilliantly sane.

From Time Magazine Archive

Well, if you don’t feel good why don’t you take a physic?

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

In emerging quantum technologies, questions like this bring together two branches of physics that were developed for very different purposes.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

The original plan was to scrap physics, chemistry and biology as separate courses, but that is on hold until at least 2031.

From BBC ● Aug. 19, 2026

Researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland have now introduced a theoretical framework designed to make thermodynamics and quantum physics work consistently in the same setting.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 19, 2026

This is not to excuse excesses, but to point out a mundane matter of physics.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026

Albert Einstein, a twenty-six-year-old patent clerk, showed the physics world that nature worked in quanta rather than in smooth increments.

From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife

And physicked me and made me worse, Till infancy became a curse?

From The Poetical Works of Thomas Hood by Thomas Hood

It fell away all at once, though no change was made in the diet; and yet we learn it has been physicked.

From The Dog by Dinks

Nearly every one who knew of the facts in his case was alarmed, and many did not hesitate to cry out, even in his hearing, "He must be physicked, or die!"

From Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders Cogitations and Confessions of an Aged Physician by William A. (William Andrus) Alcott

Confound you, do you think I want to be physicked?

From Varney the Vampire Or the Feast of Blood by Thomas Preskett Prest

But look here: doctors look at people’s tongues to see whether they wants to be physicked, or to have their arms or legs cut off.

From The Young Castellan A Tale of the English Civil War by George Manville Fenn

But Victoria easily recovered from and forgot this preliminary and bad physicking, and was soon to be seen galloping on its road of progress as if nothing to its damage could ever have happened.

From Personal Recollections of Early Melbourne and Victoria by William Westgarth

Be that as it may, she broke up her establishment in town at this time, and retired to a lonely cottage in Wales, where she amused herself in superintending her dairy and physicking the poor.

From Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century by George Paston

Last Monday he told me that more physicking was no good, and that I had better be off here, and see what exercise and the fresh air of the moors would do for me.

From Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley — Volume 2 by Thomas Henry Huxley

I will next speak about those other four subjects which Scrofa outlined, namely: the feeding, breeding, raising and physicking of sheep.

From Roman Farm Management The Treatises of Cato and Varro by Fairfax Harrison

The physicking and shoeing is taken by contract, by one man. 

From Here and There in London by J. Ewing (James Ewing) Ritchie