Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A medicine that serves for many uses, or that cures many diseases

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

  • noun (Med.), obsolete A medicine that serves for many uses, or that cures many diseases.
  • noun (Old Med. Chem.) potassium sulphate, specifically obtained by fusing niter with sulphur.

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

  • noun medicine A medicine that serves for many uses, or that cures many diseases.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The four mathematical instances measure practice: polychrest and magical instances facilitate it.

    The New Organon 2005

  • There remains a consent of bodies, inartificial perhaps in mode of operation, but in use a polychrest, which should in no wise be omitted, but examined into with careful attention.

    The New Organon 2005

  • Let this suffice to exemplify the polychrest instances.

    The New Organon 2005

  • Day after day I have obtained more satisfactory results, and now I look upon Apis mellifica as the greatest polychrest, next to Aconite, which we possess.

    Apis Mellifica or, The Poison of the Honey-Bee, Considered as a Therapeutic Agent C. W. Wolf

  • Take that handkerchief off of her head, and cut her hair close, and keep her temples cool, and put some drawing plasters to the soles of her feet, and give her some of my pilulae compositae, and follow them with some doses of sal polychrest.

    The Guardian Angel Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • Take that handkerchief off of her head, and cut her hair close, and keep her temples cool, and put some drawing plasters to the soles of her feet, and give her some of my pilulae compositae, and follow them with some doses of sal polychrest.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Works Oliver Wendell Holmes 1851

  • The most important of the salts, formed by the combinations of the sulphuric acid, are, first, _sulphat of potash_, formerly called _sal polychrest_: this is a very bitter salt, much used in medicine; it is found in the ashes of most vegetables, but it may be prepared artificially by the immediate combination of sulphuric acid and potash.

    Conversations on Chemistry, V. 1-2 In Which the Elements of that Science Are Familiarly Explained and Illustrated by Experiments 1813

  • It appears then from what has been said that there are twenty-seven prerogative instances, namely, solitary instances; migratory instances; striking instances; clandestine instances; constitutive instances; conformable instances; singular instances; deviating instances; bordering instances; instances of power; instances of companionship and of enmity; subjunctive instances; instances of alliance; instances of the fingerpost; instances of divorce; instances of the door; summoning instances; instances of the road; instances supplementary; dissecting instances; instances of the rod; instances of the course; doses of nature; instances of strife; intimating instances; polychrest instances; magical instances.

    The New Organon 2005

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  • "After I've had some soup, I go and get in the bath with two of the homoeopathy books: Kent's Lectures on the Materia Medica and a rather strange-looking volume called Literary Portraits of the Polychrests."

    The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas, p 117

    December 30, 2013