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vesicant

American  
[ves-i-kuhnt] / ˈvɛs ɪ kənt /

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.

vesicant British  
/ ˈvɛsɪkənt /

noun

  1. any substance that causes blisters, used in medicine and in chemical warfare

"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

adjective

  1. acting as a vesicant

"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

Etymology

Origin of vesicant

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

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

Mustard was far & away the most important vesicant in the European arena.

From Time Magazine Archive

In the whole of them the bulb is the most active part, and any one of them may supply the place of the other; for they are all irritant, excitant, and vesicant.

From The Book of Household Management by Mrs. (Isabella Mary) Beeton

Vesicant or Blistering Compounds.—It was the introduction of the fourth, the vesicant class, which revealed, more than any other enemy move, the great possibilities inherent in chemical warfare.

From The Riddle of the Rhine; chemical strategy in peace and war by Victor Lefebure

Even those who wore the mask were attacked by the vesicant or blistering influence of the gas.

From The Riddle of the Rhine; chemical strategy in peace and war by Victor Lefebure

Neusser now produced a non-specific inflammatory bulla in the skin by a vesicant, and found that the cellular elements in it were exclusively the polynuclear neutrophil concerned in all ordinary inflammations.

From Histology of the Blood Normal and Pathological by W. Myers

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