purgative
1
8.1
- noun
- /ˈpɜrɡətɪv/
- Specialized
:
purgante
- The doctor recommended a purgative to help relieve his constipation.
Examples
-
Every one of my collaborators told me either that one must take a purgative before commencing a course of French medicine or that one must wait three days before beginning the French medicine if one had been taking Tahitian medicine first.
Academic text (1994) -
In a somewhat softer tone but with no less vehemence, Paul Valentine, writing for The Washington Post, describes the film as a "psychological purgative for white America" which creates a new stereotype "of the native American as all nobility, wisdom, and oneness with the earth."
Academic text (1991) -
Then perhaps he needs a purgative.
-
One was to bring down the fever, another a purgative, the third to overcome an acid condition.
Fiction book (1999) -
It's essential to his recovery, a purgative for the toxins in his mind.
-
Far better this, he said, looking at my bewildered countenance, than the calomel and other purgatives on which less wise travelers rely.
Fiction book (1999) -
After taking a purgative, she felt a significant improvement in her digestive health.
-
He used a natural purgative made from herbs to cleanse his system.
Synonyms
8
4.9
Causing the body to pass stool
4
9.9
A medicine that makes you empty your bowels
A medicine that makes you empty your bowels quickly
A medicine that makes the bowels move gently to relieve mild constipation
Antonyms
How Strong
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Purgative comes from the Latin purgare, which means 'to clean', and is the same root as the common word purge. So a purgative is a medicine that 'cleans out' the bowels, which is why it means a laxative.