poultice

American  

[pohl-tis] / ˈpoʊl tɪs /

noun

1. a soft, moist mass of cloth, bread, meal, herbs, etc., applied hot as a medicament to the body.

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verb (used with object)

poulticed, poulticing

1. to apply a poultice to.

poultice British  

/ ˈpəʊltɪs /

noun

1. Also called: cataplasm. med a local moist and often heated application for the skin consisting of substances such as kaolin, linseed, or mustard, used to improve the circulation, treat inflamed areas, etc

2. slang a large sum of money, esp a debt

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Other Word Forms

• unpoulticed
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of poultice

1535–45; earlier pultes, plural (taken as singular) of Latin puls (stem pult- ) thick pap. See pulse ²

Explanation

The next time you have a cut or an infection, maybe you should put some cereal on it. A poultice is a soft material — often cereal-like — used for healing. Think of a poultice as a mushy, sticky bandage. If you have a wound, infection, rash, or inflammation, you will probably cover it with a bandage or apply medicine to it: a poultice may accomplish both at once. Used in many cultures, a poultice may be mixed with medicine or heated. It can be made of clay, porridge, or even bread! Not surprisingly, the word poultice can be traced to the Latin route puls, meaning “porridge” or "a warm cereal.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

poultice poulticed poulticing

I was a middle-class kid from New Jersey, but like a poultice, this ancient, colonized country drew out an answering difference from my bones.

From Salon ● May 27, 2024

After researchers saw Rakus applying the plant poultice to his face, the wound closed up and healed in a month.

From BBC ● May 2, 2024

Dampen the stone, apply the poultice a half-inch thick, then cover it with plastic and tape down the edges.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 29, 2022

Use it to make a strong cup of tea and perhaps, with the bedsheets, a soothing poultice.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 9, 2016

“I’ll bet those docs would thank you for that. But I’d like to get a poultice on this dog.”

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

With great technical brilliance, they poulticed inflamed crises again & again with the salve of compromise.

From Time Magazine Archive

The sting was poulticed later by inviting the defendant to attend Texas City's fair next week.

From Time Magazine Archive

I was again inspected about this time by a stranger doctor, and immediately after he left, my leg was lanced and poulticed.

From Six Years in the Prisons of England by Frank Henderson

He is poulticed with beef and bread and admonished with the wise sayings of the three Williams continuously.

From The Outcaste by F. E. Penny

He said, "I poulticed my shoulders for three weeks, and they began to get soft, so I stopped doing it."

From Papers on Health by Edward Bruce Kirk

I don’t possess the patience for 10 days of poulticing the patio, so I turned to Iron Out, a plant-safe liquid containing oxalic acid.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 29, 2022

If the New Deal party could be cured of its sickness through adroit poulticing, Jimmy Byrnes was the ideal physician.

From Time Magazine Archive

But little can be done in the way of treatment, save to hurry the ripening of the abscess and its discharge by steaming with hops, hay, or similar substances and by poulticing the throat.

From Special Report on Diseases of the Horse by Charles B. Michener

The spinal rubbing and poulticing with bran will also be effective for this.

From Papers on Health by Edward Bruce Kirk

You should have cut 'em off a bit—then you wouldn't look as though you were poulticing your shins.

From The Purple Heights by Marie Conway Oemler