constipation
/kɒnstɪˈpeɪʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1A condition in which there is difficulty in emptying the bowels, usually associated with hardened faeces.Other commonly associated symptoms include nausea, vomiting, and constipation or diarrhea....
- It isn't a disease but may be a symptom of severe constipation or emotional difficulties related to stool holding.
- The drug should not be used by patients who are currently constipated or whose main bowel symptom is constipation.
1.1A high level of constraint or restriction: literary constipation...
- The result has been a form of social constipation, a culture of non-performance in regard to expeditious implementation.
- Wales's gregariousness is real enough, but so is the chronic social constipation of its governing classes in which everyone knows everyone else.
- I'm having Creative Constipation.
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'contraction of body tissues'): from late Latin constipatio(n-), from the verb constipare (see constipated).
- ionosonde
- ionosphere
- ionospheric
- ionospherically
- ionosphericist
- ionospherist
- ionotropic
- ionotropy
- ion pair
- ion propulsion
- ion pump
- ion rocket
- ion-selective
- ion source
- ion spot
- ion tail
- iontophoresis
- ion transport
- ion trap
- IOOF
- iophendylate
- -ior
- iora
- I (or he etc.) will try anything once
- I (or he, she, etc.) cannot (or could not) say