a. and sb. [ad. L. cathartic-us, a. Gr. καθαρτικός fit for cleansing, purgative; see prec. Cf. F. cathartique.]
A. adj.
1. Med. Cleansing (the bowels), promoting evacuation, purgative.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 351. Catharticke or purging Medicines.
1667. Boyle, Orig. Formes & Qual., 292. The purgative faculty of Rhubarb, Senna, and other Cathartick Vegetables.
1801. Med. Jrnl., V. 220. An ounce of the common cathartic salts was dissolved in six ounces of boiling water.
1868. Geo. Eliot, Sp. Gipsy, 239. Honey’s not sweet, commended as cathartic.
2. gen. (and fig.) Cleansing, purifying, purging.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 787. As this Earthy Body is washed by Water, so is that Spirituous Body Cleansed by Cathartick Vapours.
1795. T. Taylor, Apuleius (1822), 364. This philosophic death … is effected by the cathartic or purifying virtues.
1841–4. Emerson, Ess. Heroism, Wks. (Bohn), I. 104. We need books of this tart cathartic virtue.
B. sb. A medicine that has the power of purging or evacuating; a purgative. More strictly: ‘a medicine which is capable of producing the second grade of purgation, of which laxative is the first and drastic the third’ (Syd. Soc. Lex.).
1651. Wittie, trans. Primrose’s Pop. Err., IV. 263. Aloes, which is such a gentle cathartick.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1852), II. 147. It may be proper for jockeys and running footmen to keep themselves spare and light by cathartics.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 208. A mild cathartic.
b. fig.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, v. 230. Lustrations and catharticks of the mind were sought for.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 507, ¶ 1. Plato has called mathemnatical demonstrations the cathartics or purgatives of the soul.
1860. Abp. Thomson, Laws Th., § 35. Logic … is called the Cathartic of the Mind.
