vesicant

[ ves-i-kuhnt ]

adjective
  1. producing a blister or blisters, as a medicinal substance; vesicating.

noun
  1. a vesicant agent or substance.

  2. (in chemical warfare) a chemical agent that causes burns and destruction of tissue both internally and externally.

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Origin of vesicant

1
1655–65; <New Latin vēsīcant- (stem of vēsīcāns), present participle of vēsīcāre to vesicate; see -ant

Words Nearby vesicant

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use vesicant in a sentence

  • Following this, a vesicant is employed and the subject is allowed a month's rest.

    Lameness of the Horse | John Victor Lacroix
  • Following the acute stage of such an infection, any local counter-irritating application or even a vesicant is in order.

    Lameness of the Horse | John Victor Lacroix
  • Line-firing, instead of the vesicant is made use of by some, but the object desired is the same and results obtained are similar.

    Lameness of the Horse | John Victor Lacroix
  • In these cases, subjects may be put into service after all swelling which the injection or the vesicant has produced has subsided.

    Lameness of the Horse | John Victor Lacroix
  • Reduction having been affected, the application of a vesicant over the whole patellar region is customary.

    Lameness of the Horse | John Victor Lacroix

British Dictionary definitions for vesicant

vesicant

vesicatory (ˈvɛsɪˌkeɪtərɪ)

/ (ˈvɛsɪkənt) /


nounplural -cants or -catories
  1. any substance that causes blisters, used in medicine and in chemical warfare

adjective
  1. acting as a vesicant

Origin of vesicant

1
C19: see vesica

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012