Cathartic
of or relating to catharsis.
Also, cathartical. evacuating the bowels; purgative.
a purgative.
Contemporary Examples
One hopes they will lose in court, but if they settle, may the punitive clobbering be profound—and cathartic.
The Hearing From Hell Tunku Varadarajan April 26, 2010
The show offers no cathartic “gotcha” moments, no easy answers, and no rapid-fire dialogue.
Stop Everything and Go Watch ‘Rectify’ Jason Lynch June 18, 2014
A cathartic moment we can only hope played out in real life.
Philanderer in Chief Caryn James July 18, 2009
In that way that was cathartic too, to sort of stitch up all those pieces and see how that is.
Richard Blanco’s Gay Latino Poet Survival Kit William O’Connor October 7, 2014
“I hope that some of it is cathartic—for both the viewer and the people in the work,” Wearing says.
Gillian Wearing: One of Today’s 10 Most Important Artists Blake Gopnik June 4, 2011
Historical Examples
Hooper’s Female Pills had been from the beginning a cathartic and emmenagogue.
Old English Patent Medicines in America George B. Griffenhagen
Dispensatory: Described as a cathartic with roots tonic and aperient.
The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees James Mooney
Give a cathartic, such as castor oil, as soon as cold appears.
Scouting For Girls, Official Handbook of the Girl Scouts Girl Scouts
From fifteen to twenty grains are an ordinary dose for a cathartic.
A New Guide for Emigrants to the West J. M. Peck
If needed as a cathartic, they are better given as such on an empty stomach; then the system quickly gets rid of them.
The Laurel Health Cookery Evora Bucknum Perkins
adjective
purgative
effecting catharsis
noun
a purgative drug or agent
adj.
1610s, of medicines, from Latin catharticus, from Greek kathartikos “fit for cleansing, purgative,” from katharsis “purging, cleansing” (see catharsis). General sense is from 1670s. Related: Cathartical.
cathartic ca·thar·tic (kə-thär’tĭk)
adj.
Inducing catharsis; purgative. n.
An agent for purging the bowels, especially a laxative.
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