Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Inducing catharsis; purgative.
  • noun An agent for purging the bowels, especially a laxative.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Purgative; purifying.
  • Pertaining to or derived from cathartin.
  • noun A cathartic medicine; a purge; a purgative.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Med.) A medicine that promotes alvine discharges; a purge; a purgative of moderate activity.
  • adjective (Med.) Cleansing the bowels; promoting evacuations by stool; purgative.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the purgative principle of senna, as cathartic acid.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective purgative; inducing catharsis
  • adjective That releases emotional tension, especially after an overwhelming experience
  • noun A laxative

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective emotionally purging (of e.g. art)
  • adjective emotionally purging
  • adjective strongly laxative
  • noun a purging medicine; stimulates evacuation of the bowels

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin catharticus, from Greek kathartikos, from kathairein, to purge; see catharsis.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek κάθαρσις (katharsis, "cleansing, purification")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word cathartic.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.