Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A food or drug that stimulates evacuation of the bowels.
- adjective Stimulating evacuation of the bowels.
- adjective Causing looseness or relaxation, especially of the bowels.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Loose; soft; easy.
- In medicine, having the power or quality of relieving from constipation by relaxing or opening the intestines. Compare
cathartic , 1. - noun A medicine that relieves from costiveness by relaxing the intestines; a gentle purgative.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Having a tendency to loosen or relax.
- adjective (Med.) Having the effect of loosening or opening the intestines, and relieving from constipation; -- opposed to
astringent .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Having the effect of moving the
bowels , or aidingdigestion and preventingconstipation . - noun Any substance, such as a food or in the form of a medicine which has a laxative effect.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a mild cathartic
- adjective stimulating evacuation of feces
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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A sherbet of the pods, being slightly laxative, is much drunk during the great heats; and the dried fruit, made into small round cakes, is sold in the bazars.
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“The laxative was the lesser of the two evils, especially if your folks had found out.”
Secrets Never Told Rochelle Alers 2003
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The liberal use of these cooked vegetables has a tendency to prevent constipation, and some of them are called laxative foods, such as stewed onions and spinach.
Maintaining Health Formerly Health and Efficiency R. L. Alsaker
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DO NOT EAT OR DRINK any kind of laxative or purge highly seasoned food alcoholic drinks
Chapter 20 1993
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Relax had gone from being about giving up control of things like rules and bowel muscles perhaps with some help from a laxative to being about striving to do something quite particular: nothing.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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Relax had gone from being about giving up control of things like rules and bowel muscles perhaps with some help from a laxative to being about striving to do something quite particular: nothing.
The English Is Coming! Leslie Dunton-Downer 2010
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It was not cultivated as a plant until the 17th century long after Elizabeth I, and then only speculatively, and mainly as a possible home-grown substitute for the expensive rhubarb root imported from the east and used as a purgative and laxative.
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Putting the word concern between quote marks is a poor laxative for understanding, ralph.
Think Progress » Judge strikes down Arkansas law banning same-sex couples from adopting. 2010
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My question is, why cant this lazy ass kid eat the laxative on his own?
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Most rhubarb available then was imported dried from China as a laxative, although some was also grown for medicinal purposes in England; fresh rhubarb was not used in British cooking until the late 18th century.
sakhalinskii commented on the word laxative
Toilet, in a pill.
August 5, 2008