defecate
/ˈdɛfɪkeɪt
/ /ˈdiːfɪkeɪt/(British also defaecate)
verb [no object]
Discharge faeces from the body.In this story, the first sago came from inside a man's body who defecated and the sago fell to the ground and became a sago palm....
- Drinking warm liquids in the morning is particularly helpful to stimulate bowel activity because your body naturally wants to defecate about a half hour after consuming a warm beverage.
- It is a sad indictment of our times that in the twenty-first century, people in the developing world cannot access safe water and are filling bowls from streams, queuing at village pumps and defecating in ‘free range’ toilets.
Synonyms
excrete, pass/discharge/excrete faeces, have a bowel movement, have a BM, evacuate one's bowels, open one's bowels, void excrement, relieve oneself, go to the lavatory
informal do number two, do a pooh, do a whoopsie
vulgar slang crap, have a crap, shit, have a shit, dump, have a dump
Derivatives
defecator
- We've had to put up with acts of vandalism, urinating, defecators and damage to cars and property.
- Community-level studies also combine seed regurgitators and seed defecators, for whom costs of seed ingestion are likely to be quite different.
- In some cases it was not possible to record individual defecator information, and instead after the study group vacated an area, the area was searched for fresh fecal samples.
defecatory
- Then there's the words relating to bodily functions, be that copulatory or defecatory.
- As many as 6-10% of all women experience new defecatory symptoms postpartum, and anywhere between 13% and 20% experience loss of control of flatus.
- Degenerative neuromuscular disorders which affect the defecatory process are extremely difficult to treat and in some instances a colostomy is the only socially acceptable intervention.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'clear of dregs, purify'): from Latin defaecat- 'cleared of dregs', from the verb defaecare, from de- (expressing removal) + faex, faec- 'dregs'. The current sense dates from the mid 19th century.
This originally meant ‘clear of dregs, purify’ from Latin defaecare, formed from de- (expressing removal) and faex, faec- ‘dregs’. The current sense dates from the mid 19th century.