Word Meanings - CATHARTIC - Book Publishers vocabulary database

A medicine that promotes alvine discharges; a purge; a purgative of moderate activity. Note: The cathartics are more energetic and certain in action that the laxatives, which simply increase the tendency to alvine evacuation; and less powerful and

Additional info about word: CATHARTIC

A medicine that promotes alvine discharges; a purge; a purgative of moderate activity. Note: The cathartics are more energetic and certain in action that the laxatives, which simply increase the tendency to alvine evacuation; and less powerful and irritaint that the drastic purges, which cause profuse, repeated, and watery evacuations. -- Ca*thar"tic*al*ly, adv. -- Ca*thar"tic*al*ness, n.

Related words: (words related to CATHARTIC)

• POWERFUL
  Large; capacious; -- said of veins of ore. Syn. -- Mighty; strong; potent; forcible; efficacious; energetic; intense. -- Pow"er*ful*ly, adv. -- Pow"er*ful*ness, n. (more info) 1. Full of power; capable of producing great effects of any
• ACTIVITY
  The state or quality of being active; nimbleness; agility; vigorous action or operation; energy; active force; as, an increasing variety of human activities. "The activity of toil." Palfrey. Syn. -- Liveliness; briskness; quickness.
• ACTION
  Effective motion; also, mechanism; as, the breech action of a gun. (more info) 1. A process or condition of acting or moving, as opposed to rest; the doing of something; exertion of power or force, as when one body acts on another; the effect of
• WHICHEVER; WHICHSOEVER
  Whether one or another; whether one or the other; which; that one which; as, whichever road you take, it will lead you to town.
• EVACUATION
  1. The act of emptying, clearing of the contents, or discharging. Specifically: Withdrawal of troops from a town, fortress, etc. Voidance of any matter by the natural passages of the body or by an artificial opening; defecation; also, a diminution
• ALVINE
  Of, from, in, or pertaining to, the belly or the intestines; as, alvine discharges; alvine concretions.
• ACTIONABLE
  That may be the subject of an action or suit at law; as, to call a man a thief is actionable.
• INCREASE
  The period of increasing light, or luminous phase; the waxing; -- said of the moon. Seeds, hair, nails, hedges, and herbs will grow soonest if set or cut in the increase of the moon. Bacon. Increase twist, the twixt of a rifle groove in which the
• PURGER
  One who, or that which, purges or cleanses; especially, a cathartic medicine.
• SIMPLY
  1. In a simple manner or state; considered in or by itself; without addition; along; merely; solely; barely. make that now good or evil, . . . which otherwise of itself were not simply the one or the other. Hooker. Simply the thing I am Shall make
• INCREASEMENT
  Increase. Bacon.
• PURGATIVELY
  In a purgative manner.
• CERTAINTY
  Clearness; freedom from ambiguity; lucidity. Of a certainty, certainly. (more info) 1. The quality, state, or condition, of being certain. The certainty of punishment is the truest security against crimes. Fisher Ames. 2. A fact or truth
• MODERATELY
  In a moderate manner or degree; to a moderate extent. Each nymph but moderately fair. Waller.
• WHICH
  the root of hwa who + lic body; hence properly, of what sort or kind; akin to OS. hwilik which, OFries. hwelik, D. welk, G. welch, OHG. welih, hwelih, Icel. hvilikr, Dan. & Sw. hvilken, Goth. hwileiks, 1. Of what sort or kind; what; what a; who.
• ENERGETICS
  That branch of science which treats of the laws governing the physical or mechanical, in distinction from the vital, forces, and which comprehends the consideration and general investigation of the whole range of the forces concerned in physical
• PURGERY
  The part of a sugarhouse where the molasses is drained off from the sugar.
• CERTAINNESS
  Certainty.
• TENDENCY
  Direction or course toward any place, object, effect, or result; drift; causal or efficient influence to bring about an effect or result. Writings of this kind, if conducted with candor, have a more particular tendency to the good of their country.
• ACTIONABLY
  In an actionable manner.
• REINCREASE
  To increase again.
• ASCERTAINMENT
  The act of ascertaining; a reducing to certainty; a finding out by investigation; discovery. The positive ascertainment of its limits. Burke.
• REACTIONIST
  A reactionary. C. Kingsley.
• ASCERTAINABLE
  That may be ascertained. -- As`cer*tain"a*ble*ness, n. -- As`cer*tain"a*bly, adv.
• MADEFACTION; MADEFICATION
  The act of madefying, or making wet; the state of that which is made wet. Bacon.
• REDACTION
  The act of redacting; work produced by redacting; a digest.
• CHYLIFACTION
  The act or process by which chyle is formed from food in animal bodies; chylification, -- a digestive process.
• FACTION
  One of the divisions or parties of charioteers (distinguished by their colors) in the games of the circus. 2. A party, in political society, combined or acting in union, in opposition to the government, or state; -- usually applied to a minority,
• DISTRACTION
  1. The act of distracting; a drawing apart; separation. To create distractions among us. Bp. Burnet. 2. That which diverts attention; a diversion. "Domestic distractions." G. Eliot. 3. A diversity of direction; detachment. His power went out in
• REFACTION
  Recompense; atonemet; retribution. Howell.
• COLLIQUEFACTION
  A melting together; the reduction of different bodies into one mass by fusion. The incorporation of metals by simple colliquefaction. Bacon.
• DIRECT ACTION
  See BELOW
• UNDERACTION
  Subordinate action; a minor action incidental or subsidiary to the main story; an episode. The least episodes or underactions . . . are parts necessary or convenient to carry on the main design. Dryden.
• ABSTRACTION
  The act process of leaving out of consideration one or more properties of a complex object so as to attend to others; analysis. Thus, when the mind considers the form of a tree by itself, or the color of the leaves as separate from their size or
• SUBSTRACTION
  See 3 (more info) 1. Subtraction; deduction.
• SUBTRACTION
  The taking of a lesser number or quantity from a greater of the same kind or denomination; an operation for finding the difference between two numbers or quantities. (more info) 1. The act or operation of subtracting or taking away a part.
• EXACTION
  1. The act of demanding with authority, and compelling to pay or yield; compulsion to give or furnish; a levying by force; a driving to compliance; as, the exaction to tribute or of obedience; hence, extortion. Take away your exactions from my