Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The dried root of Cephaëlis Ipecacuanha, a small shrubby plant, a native of Brazil, the United States of Colombia, and other parts of South America.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med. & Bot.) The root of a Brazilian rubiaceous herb (Cephaëlis Ipecacuanha), largely employed as an emetic; also, the plant itself; also, a medicinal extract of the root. Many other plants are used as a substitutes; among them are the black or Peruvian ipecac (Psychotria emetica), the white ipecac (Ionidium Ipecacuanha), the bastard or wild ipecac (Asclepias Curassavica), and the undulated ipecac (Richardsonia scabra).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A flowering plant, Psychotria ipecacuanha, the root of which has medicinal uses.
  • noun The powdered root of this plant, used as an emetic; ipecac.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Tupian ipekaaguéne, from ipeh ("low") + kaâ ("leaves") + guéne ("vomit"), via Portuguese ipecacuanha.

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Examples

  • The ipecacuanha is a pretty, delicate plant, which bears a bright orange-colored cluster of flowers.

    Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon Samuel White Baker 1857

  • The similia principle had a prior history in medicine, from Hippocrates in Ancient Greece -- who noted, for example, that recurrent vomiting could be treated with an emetic (such as ipecacuanha) that would be expected to make it worse -- to folk medicine. (

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The similia principle had a prior history in medicine, from Hippocrates in Ancient Greece -- who noted, for example, that recurrent vomiting could be treated with an emetic (such as ipecacuanha) that would be expected to make it worse -- to folk medicine. (

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The similia principle had a prior history in medicine, from Hippocrates in Ancient Greece -- who noted, for example, that recurrent vomiting could be treated with an emetic (such as ipecacuanha) that would be expected to make it worse -- to folk medicine. (

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • The similia principle had a prior history in medicine, from Hippocrates in Ancient Greece -- who noted, for example, that recurrent vomiting could be treated with an emetic (such as ipecacuanha) that would be expected to make it worse -- to folk medicine. (

    Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en] 2009

  • He was forced to concentrate with all his will in order to remember which of them could stand ipecacuanha, and which of them were constitutionally unable to retain that powerful drug.

    Chapter 1 2010

  • Here, then, for six interminable years, one of the acutest brains in Europe had to interest itself in fraying ipecacuanha and mixing black draughts behind an apothecary's counter.

    Henrik Ibsen 2008

  • Here, then, for six interminable years, one of the acutest brains in Europe had to interest itself in fraying ipecacuanha and mixing black draughts behind an apothecary's counter.

    Henrik Ibsen 2008

  • For my own part, libertine as people think me, when I had occasion to be sick, I took a dose of ipecacuanha, that I might not be guilty of a falsehood; and most heartily sick was I; as she, who then pitied me, full well knew.

    Clarissa Harlowe 2006

  • The ipecacuanha contrivance convinces me that she loves me.

    Clarissa Harlowe 2006

Comments

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  • Used to make Syrup of Ipecac.

    December 15, 2007

  • Well but, Lovelace, how the deuce wilt thou, with that full health and vigour of constitution, and with that bloom in thy face, make anybody believe thou art sick?

    How!-- Why take a few grains of ipecacuanha; enough to make me retch like a fury.

    Lovelace to Belford, Clarissa by Samuel Richardson

    December 15, 2007

  • Nah, anyone who's ever played The Curse of Monkey Island knows that all you need to make syrup of ipecac is an ipecac flower and a bottle of maple syrup. The two combine splendidly.

    December 17, 2007

  • Wot, you can't make this out of a flesh-eating fish and a handful of acronyms?

    December 17, 2007

  • Note to self: Never eat pancakes with uselessness. Behold the ipecac flower.

    December 17, 2007

  • Oh, I see. Monkey Island is much more, uh, vernacular, in its description of plants. ;-)

    December 18, 2007

  • "'Surely you do not experiment on your patients, Stephen?' cried Jack.

    'In course I do, just as you experiment with various sails or arrangements of sails, to see what suits a boat best. A boat does not have three mizzen topsails and a gaff written on its prow; and my patients do not have ipecacuanha tattooed on their foreheads. Of course I experiment. Experiment, forsooth.'"

    --Patrick O'Brian, Blue at the Mizzen, 89

    March 27, 2008