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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
purgative
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ It was colossal and magnificent-a purgative of national despair.
▪ Throughout Britain, thousands of teenagers, offered a rude purgative to royal overkill, chorused a noisy amen.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Purgative

Purgative \Pur"ga*tive\, a. [L. purgativus: cf. F. purgatif.] Having the power or quality of purging; cathartic. -- n. (Med.) A purging medicine; a cathartic.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
purgative

late 14c., from Old French purgatif (14c.) and directly from Late Latin purgativus, from purgat-, past participle stem of Latin purgare (see purge (v.)). The noun is attested from early 15c. (Old English medical texts have clænsungdrenc).

Wiktionary
purgative

a. (capable of) purge n. something, such as a substance or medicine, that purges; laxative

WordNet
purgative
  1. adj. strongly laxative [syn: cathartic, evacuant]

  2. n. a purging medicine; stimulates evacuation of the bowels [syn: cathartic, physic, aperient]

Usage examples of "purgative".

During the sweating stage the patient should be left alone, but as soon as the perspiration ceases, from two to four of the Purgative Pellets should be administered, as a gentle cathartic.

Anti-spasmodics, epileptic medications, and two others, along with atropine and a purgative with a charcoal base.

An infusion made from one drachm of the dried flowers, or from half an ounce of the fresh flowers, has a purgative effect.

The ripe fruit, from which a medicinal tincture is prepared, furnishes euonymin, a golden resin, which is purgative and emetic.

On the day of death there was considerable distention, and a gentle purgative and antispasmodic were given.

Each of the berries contains four seeds: and the flesh of birds which eat thereof is said to be purgative.

Warm compresses, venesection from the sublingual veins, and from the jugular, and purgatives in severe cases, are the further remedies.

The best that could be arranged for the President were a small bedroom and sitting room in a boardinghouse kept by two maiden sisters named Barnes, one of whom provided the ailing Adams with a down comforter, while the other dosed him with a purgative of rhubarb and calomel.

Purgatives act with more energy and produce several discharges which are of a more liquid character and more copious than the former.

He also doubled your memory with antifebrile purgatives, magnified your morals with tonic robor-ants, and adjusted all anguished psyches with Orel’s Epulotic Vulnerary.

He also doubled your memory with antifebrile purgatives, magnified your morals with tonic roborants, and adjusted all anguished psyches with Orel's Epulotic Vulnerary.

He also doubled your memory with antifebrile purgatives, magnified your morals with tonic roborants, and adjusted all anguished psyches with Orel’s Epulotic Vulnerary.

As far as the offer of purgative at little or no charge"-here Cauch coughed-"this is all very well.

Gerrard discovered an alkaloid in the seeds, more powerful as a purgative than the Sparteine obtained from Cytisus scoparius (Link) (Pharm.

This, or 20 grains of the powdered bark, is an effective dose for worms if followed by a purgative.