| 释义 |
cathartic, a. and n.|kəˈθɑːtɪk|
[ad. L. cathartic-us, a. Gr. καθαρτικός fit for cleansing, purgative; see prec. Cf. F. cathartique.]
A. adj.
1. Med. Cleansing (the bowels), promoting evacuation, purgative.
1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 351 Catharticke or purging Medicines. 1667Boyle Orig. Formes & Qual., The purgative faculty of Rhubarb, Senna, and other Cathartick Vegetables. 1801Med. Jrnl. V. 220 An ounce of the common cathartic salts. 1868Geo. Eliot Sp. Gipsy 239 Honey's not sweet, commended as cathartic.
2. gen. (and fig.) Cleansing, purifying, purging.
1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 787 As this Earthy Body is washed by Water, so is that Spirituous Body Cleansed by Cathartick Vapours. 1795T. Taylor Apuleius (1822) 364 This philosophic death..is effected by the cathartic or purifying virtues. 1841–4.Emerson Ess. Heroism Wks. (Bohn) I. 104 We need books of this tart cathartic virtue.
B. n. A medicine which has the power of purging or evacuating; a purgative. More strictly: ‘a medicine which is capable of producing the second grade of purgation, of which laxative is the first and drastic the third’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1651Wittie tr. Primrose's Pop. Err. iv. 265 Aloes, which is such a gentle cathartick. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) II. 147, It may be proper for jockeys and running footmen to keep themselves spare and light by cathartics. 1830Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 208 A mild cathartic.
b. fig.
1667Decay Chr. Piety v. 230 Lustrations and catharticks of the mind were sought for. 1712Addison Spect. No. 507 ⁋1 Plato has called mathematical demonstrations the cathartics or purgatives of the soul. 1860Abp. Thomson Laws Th. §35 Logic..is called the Cathartic of the Mind. |