CATHARTIC (2)

cathartic (2)|cathartical. Cathartic, or Cathartical, a. purging, cleansing

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Ca‐thar″tic, n. [] (Med.) A medicine that promotes alvine discharges; a purge; a purgative of moderate activity. ☞ 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.