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.

---

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

---

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

Phusis became the source of physic, which at first meant natural science and later was the word for medicine.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

Beyond its importance for fundamental physics, the finding could help researchers develop magnetic materials with properties suited to future technologies, including advanced memory systems, quantum devices, and more energy-efficient data centers.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 4, 2026

University of Wisconsin-Madison professor , who won the Nobel Prize for physics this year, immigrated from Belgium.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 3, 2026

She added that "lots" of her fellow researchers working in fundamental physics had already moved.

From BBC ● Nov. 3, 2026

"The problems are shared between various European countries," insisted one protester, Filippos Armen, a physics student at Thessaloniki's Aristotle University.

From Barron's ● Nov. 3, 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

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

Two or three bran mashes given on that or the preceding day, are far from sufficient when a horse is about to be physicked, whether to promote his condition, or in obedience to custom.

From Domestic Animals History and description of the horse, mule, cattle, sheep, swine, poultry and farm dogs; with directions for their management, breeding, crossing, rearing, feeding, and preparation for a profitable market; also their diseases and remedies. Together with full directions for the management of the dairy. by Richard L. Allen

In this memorandum two indisputable items figured up over three hundred francs,—one for the doctor, the other for the apothecary who had attended and physicked Eponine and Azelma through two long illnesses.

From Les Misérables by Isabel Florence Hapgood

I lay ill in a hut there once for three months, and never had a doctor near me; a woman just physicked me with roots, and did me a power of good.

From The White Hecatomb And other Stories by W. C. (William Charles) Scully

If a bullet was extracted, a gun repaired, an old sultan physicked, or the split lobe of an ear mended, a cow or cows were at hand to be paid when the task was finished.

From Great African Travellers From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley by William Henry Giles Kingston

In the intervals of political business she occupied herself with superintending her building and gardening operations, physicking the sick, and tyrannising over her numerous servants.

From Little Memoirs of the Nineteenth Century by George Paston

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

There are some little enormities of that kind which really can not be forgiven, and one such is, to miss the opportunity of physicking a baby.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. V, October, 1850, Volume I. by

Sometimes they pine and fall into a slow consumption, we nursing, cockering, and physicking them to the last.

From Nancy by Rhoda Broughton

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

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

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---