v. Now rare or Obs. Also 7 vellicat. [f. L. vellicāt-, ppl. stem of vellicāre, frequentative of vellĕre to pull, pluck, twitch, etc. Cf. Sp. velicar, Pg. vellicar.]
1. trans. Of things: To act upon or affect so as to irritate; esp. to pluck, nip, pinch or tear (a part of the body) by means of small or sharp points.
Chiefly in old medical use with reference to the action of medicaments, sharp or acrid substances, etc., on the tissues of the body. Freq. in the 17th and 18th centuries.
1604. F. Hering, Modest Defence, 16. They [i.e., strong medicines] doe forcibly vellicat, offend and violat her [Nature].
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 27. Those corrosive fretting, pontick, and acid juyces, which vellicate and prick the nerves.
1685. Boyle, Enq. Notion Nat., 223. The Fibres … of the Stomach, Bowels, and other Parts, being … Vellicated by the Plenty or Acrimony of the Peccant Matter.
1708. Brit. Apollo, No. 113. 2/2. Some sharp Humor on that part … may vellicate and twitch it.
1783. Bryant, Flora Diætetica, 168. A hairy, bristly substance, which … will, by pricking and vellicating the coats of stomach and bowels, many times occasion sickness.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), I. 82. The same effect is produced whenever the teeth are vellicated by smooth substances, as a piece of silk or velvet.
absol. 1744. Berkeley, Siris, § 61. The æthereal oils being deprived of the acid spirit in distillation, which, vellicating and contracting as a stimulus, might have proved a counterpoise to the excessive lubricating … qualities of the oil.
b. Of persons: To tickle or titillate.
1755. Phil. Trans., XLIX. 242. I vellicated the pericranium with the end of a knife.
a. 1778. C. Darwin, Experiments (1780), 94. Thus, if you vellicate the throat with a feather, nausea is produced.
1794–6. E. Darwin, Zoon. (1801), I. 281. So when children expect to be tickled in play … by gently vellicating the soles of their feet, laughter is most vehemently excited.
† 2. fig. To carp at; to criticize adversely. Obs.
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Peter ii. 1. These are they that vellicate authority.
1662. Owen, Animad. Fiat Lux, vi. If any one … have a mind … to vellicate commonly received maxims.
1686. H. More, in J. Norris, Lett. (1688), 208. Reading the confirmation of your Hypothesis, which I took the boldness a little to vellicate.
3. intr. To twitch; to contract or move convulsively. rare.
1670. Maynwaring, Vita Sana, xiii. 120. Fast not, but satisfie the Stomach when it vellicates and calls for meat.
1864. Webster, Vellicate, to move spasmodically; to twitch; as, a nerve vellicates.
Hence Veillicating ppl. a.
1669. Address to Hopeful Young Gentry England, 81–2. Many a pregnant Spirit is suffocated, in the streight enclosures of a confining vellicating Fortune.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., III. 67. It washes the vellicating Humours from the original of the Nerves.
1743. trans. Heister’s Surg., 365. The increased Flux of Tears, excited by the vellicating Body.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), I. xiii. 112. Lubricating injections to defend the coats of the stomach … from the vellicating particles.
1758. [R. Dossie], Elaboratory laid open, 218. A vellicating and pungent action.
1853. Mayne, Expos. Lex., 48. Amycticus,… irritating; vellicating.
