humorous. Nourishment for an invalid, suitable for ‘feeding up.’
1592. Greene, Upst. Courtier, in Harl. Misc. (ed. Park), V. 406. If I be ill at ease, I take kitchyn physicke, I make my wife my doctor, and my garden my apoticaries shop.
1658. Sir T. Mayerne’s Archim. Anglo-Gall., Pref. 2. The Excellency of Kitchin-physick, beyond all Gally pots.
1738. Swift, Pol. Conversat., ii. 154. Well, after all, Kitchen-Physic is the best Physic.
1863. J. R. W. [Jean L. Watson], By-gone Days, 4–5. The manse … being the resort of the sick and aged … when in want of what the minister’s wife termed ‘kitchen physic.’
So Kitchen physician.
1797. Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Beggar Girl, IV. i. 21. The fever took its departure, and left Rosa in the hands of an excellent kitchen physician.
