digitalis
5
7.7
- noun
- /ˌdɪdʒɪˈtælɪs/
- Specialized
:
digital
- The results: for every thirty-nine people taking digitalis for a year, one avoided a hospital admission.
Examples
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Yet for certain patients, digitalis remains modestly effective, making them feel and function better than any razzle-dazzle new synthetic drug.
Academic text (2008) -
Mrs. Boynton was taking a medicine called digitalis?
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All they had to do was to increase the level of the digitalis to a fatal dose.
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First of all, Mrs. Boynton was taking digitalis...
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An example of these early discoveries is digitalis, derived from the foxglove, and used to treat congestive heart failure.
Academic text (1997) -
It has taken two centuries to go from hailing digitalis as a miracle cure to wondering if using it makes any sense at all.
Academic text (2008) -
The discovery of natural products by humans predates recorded history, with the medicinal use of plants containing compounds such as morphine, quinine, and digitalis.
Academic text (2011) -
Noting that patients produced copious amounts of urine as they began to improve, Withering suspected that digitalis extract worked as a diuretic, causing excess fluid to be lost as urine and thus reducing the amount of work the heart needed to do.
Academic text (2008) -
Digitalis is commonly prescribed as a cardiac stimulant for patients with heart conditions.
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The doctor explained that digitalis can help improve heart function in certain cases.
Synonyms
1
5.8
A medicine from some plants that makes the heart beat stronger
A strong medicine from the foxglove plant that treats some heart problems
A medicine made from the foxglove plant that makes the heart beat stronger
A medicine from some plants that makes a weak heart beat stronger
Compounds
- Specialized
A wildflower from Europe with small yellow flowers shaped like tubes
- Specialized
A tall European plant with purple bell-shaped flowers whose leaves make a medicine for the heart and are poisonous
- Specialized
A medicine made from the foxglove plant that makes the heart beat stronger
Surface Forms
Etymology
Digitalis is the name of a heart medicine made from the foxglove plant. The plant's name comes from the Latin digitus meaning 'finger' because its bell-shaped flowers look like little fingers or thimbles, and the medicine keeps that plant name.