cathartic

• cathartick (obsolete)

Learned borrowing from New Latin catharticus, from Ancient Greek καθαρτικός (kathartikós).

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)tɪk

cathartic (comparative more cathartic, superlative most cathartic)

1. Purgative; inducing mental or physical catharsis.

   Shaving, my favorite activity, is very cathartic.

2. That which releases emotional tension, especially after an overwhelming experience.

cathartic (plural cathartics)

1. (medicine) A laxative.
   • 1833, R. J. Bertin, Charles W. Chauncy, transl., Treatise on the Diseases of the Heart, and Great Vessels, Philadelphia: Carey, Lea & Blnachard, page 165:

     The disease was regarded as pneumonia so far advanced that suppuration seemed to have supervened; bleeding, blisters, expectorants, and cathartics diminished the symptoms; the pulse continued frequent, hard, full, but always regular.

Borrowed from French cathartique, from New Latin catharticus, from Ancient Greek καθαρτικός (kathartikós).

cathartic m or n (feminine singular cathartică, masculine plural cathartici, feminine and neuter plural cathartice)

1. cathartic