purgative

American  

[pur-guh-tiv] / ˈpɜr gə tɪv /

adjective

1. purging or cleansing, especially by causing evacuation of the bowels.

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noun

1. a purgative medicine or agent; cathartic.

purgative British  

/ ˈpɜːɡətɪv /

noun

1. a drug or agent for purging the bowels

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adjective

1. causing evacuation of the bowels; cathartic

Other Word Forms

• nonpurgative adjective
• nonpurgatively adverb
• purgatively adverb
• unpurgative adjective
• unpurgatively adverb

Etymology

Origin of purgative

1350–1400; < Late Latin pūrgātīvus ( see purgation, -ive); replacing Middle English purgatyf < Middle French < Late Latin, as above

Example Sentences

At times wild and purgative, the album is also full of moments like this one: poised, stubbornly hopeful, grounded in Lake’s memories of a more revolutionary age and seeking to stir that energy up again.

From New York Times • Jun. 10, 2022

The juxtaposition of such a technologically enabled act — I recorded, therefore I was — and the most basic and purgative of elements invites irony where it is least wanted.

From Washington Post • Nov. 16, 2018

And this, too, felt like a purgative end to 2016.

From The New Yorker • Jan. 3, 2017

I knew that my impulsive behavior was sparked by the emotional energy I had just absorbed from Pud’s funeral, and somehow I felt this a necessary finale, or purgative.

From The Guardian • Nov. 9, 2015

As if the' air w'ere a purgative, his valve opened.

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole