Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- Cleansing; having the quality of removing foulness. See
detersive . - noun That which effects abstersion; that which purifies.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Cleansing; purging.
- noun Something cleansing.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Some think these almonds have a penetrating, abstersive quality, are able to cleanse the face, and clear it from the common freckles; and therefore, when they are eaten, by their bitterness vellicate and fret the pores, and by that means draw down the ascending vapors from the head.
Symposiacs 2004
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Thus, sir, when men dye cloth, the liquor in which they dip it hath very sharp and abstersive particles; which, consuming and scouring off all the matter that filled the pores, make the cloth more apt to receive the dye, because its pores are empty and want something to fill them up.
Symposiacs 2004
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Thus, sir, when men dye cloth, the liquor in which they dip it hath very sharp and abstersive particles; which, consuming and scouring off all the matter that filled the pores, make the cloth more apt to receive the dye, because its pores are empty and want something to fill them up.
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Some think these almonds have a penetrating, abstersive quality, are able to cleanse the face, and clear it from the common freckles; and therefore, when they are eaten, by their bitterness vellicate and fret the pores, and by that means draw down the ascending vapors from the head.
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Pownall the local historian tells you, "as a vulnerary and abstersive," and healed wounds with it; then some labourers accidentally drank it, and Epsom's fortune was made.
Highways and Byways in Surrey Eric Parker 1912
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But you shelter from Nature in houses, you protect yourselves by clothes that are useful instead of being ornamental, you wash — with such abstersive chemicals as soap for example — and above all you consult doctors.”
A Modern Utopia Herbert George 2006
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But you shelter from Nature in houses, you protect yourselves by clothes that are useful instead of being ornamental, you wash -- with such abstersive chemicals as soap for example -- and above all you consult doctors. "
A Modern Utopia 1906
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All the parts of this tree are abstersive, and therefore sovereign for the consolidating wounds; and asswage the pains of the gout: But the bark decocted in common water, to almost the consistence of a syrup, adding a third part of _aqua vitæ_, is a most admirable remedy for the _ischiadicæ_ or hip-pain, the place being well rubb’d and chaf’d by the fire.
Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) Or A Discourse of Forest Trees John Evelyn 1663
jmjarmstrong commented on the word abstersive
JM is searching for some intellectual abstersive agents.
August 25, 2009
astilius commented on the word abstersive
adv. - serving to cleanse or purge
September 9, 2009