abstergent

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The lexicographers behind Britain's Collins English Dictionary have decided to exuviate (shed) rarely-used and archaic words as part of an abstergent (cleansing) process to make room for up to 2,000 new entries.

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Definitions (5)

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  1. Having cleansing or purgative properties.
  2. Anything that aids in scouring or cleansing, as soap or fuller's earth.
  3. In medicine, a lotion or other application for cleansing a sore: in this sense nearly superseded by detergent.

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Examples (7)

  • The lexicographers behind Britain's Collins English Dictionary have decided to exuviate (shed) rarely-used and archaic words as part of an abstergent (cleansing) process to make room for up to 2,000 new entries. —  TIME.com: Top Stories
  • Their caducity should be recognized and abstergent measures should be taken to expunge them from the lexicon. —  The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed
  • The attitude that words may be discarded -- indeed, that words have caducity at all -- is not salubriously abstergent, but reflects an agrestic nisus that all cultivated English speakers must eschew. —  A Gentleman's C
  • Earthy particles, entering into the small veins of the tongue which reach to the heart, when they melt into and dry up the little veins are astringent if they are rough; or if not so rough, they are only harsh, and if excessively abstergent, like potash and soda, bitter. —  Timaeus
  • Some of them are produced by rough, others by abstergent, others by inflammatory substances, -- these act upon the testing instruments of the tongue, and produce a more or less disagreeable sensation, while other particles congenial to the tongue soften and harmonize them. —  Timaeus
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Etymologies (1)

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  1. from Latin abstergen(t-)s, present participle of abstergēre: see absterge.
 

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