Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A soft moist mass of bread, meal, clay, or other adhesive substance, usually heated, spread on cloth, and applied to warm, moisten, or stimulate an aching or inflamed part of the body. Also called cataplasm.
- v. To apply a poultice to.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A soft and usually warm mass of meal, bread, herbs, or the like, used as an emollient application to sores, inflamed parts of the body, etc.; a cataplasm.
- To cover with a poultice; apply poultices to.
Wiktionary
- n. A soft, moist mass applied topically to a sore, aching or lesioned part of the body to soothe. A poultice is usually wrapped in cloth and often warmed before being applied.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A soft composition, as of bread, bran, or a mucilaginous substance, to be applied to sores, inflamed parts of the body, etc.; a cataplasm.
- v. To apply a poultice to; to dress with a poultice.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a medical dressing consisting of a soft heated mass of meal or clay that is spread on a cloth and applied to the skin to treat inflamed areas or improve circulation etc.
- v. dress by covering with a therapeutic substance
Etymologies
- Middle English pultes, from Medieval Latin pultēs, thick paste, from Latin, pl. of puls, pult-, pottage; see pulse2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I have heard the term poultice applied to the suet pudding more than once in casual conversations in the exercise ground.”
“During the second five minutes this belief evaporates, but the poultice is buckled at the back and you cant get it off.”
“A poultice is a liquid cleaner or chemical mixed with a white absorbent material to form a paste about the consistency of peanut butter.”
“Old country doctors used a device called a poultice to draw out the infectious pus or poison to the surface in a crude but honest attempt to cure.”
“A poultice is a hot, moist mass of boiled potato, ground flaxseed, powdered fenugreek, or another substance designed to hold prolonged, moist warmth between two layers of linen or coarse cotton cloth.”
“If the knee be bruised as well as cut, a poultice should be applied, and changed two or three times a day; but on no account use gunpowder, which is a favourite remedy for broken knees with ignorant people, as it only irritates the wound.”
The Lady's Country Companion: or, How to Enjoy a Country Life Rationally
“There are a number of mush poultices recommended for different conditions -- boils, felons, etc., but we find the aseptic heating compress to be as effectual as any of these dirty, mush poultices and we suggest that our readers try the boracic-acid poultice which is put on as follows: Over any infected area or abrasion of the skin a thick padding of cotton moistened by a saturated boracic-acid solution is placed.”
“My eyes were better now on account of the rest and a snow "poultice" Webb had invented.”
The Home of the Blizzard Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
“During that first night she says that she prayed to God to know what to do for her wounded boy, and the Lord distinctly whispered to her what kind of poultice to put on the wound and how to treat him.”
A Young Folks' History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
“The back is laid varnished side downwards and a "poultice" applied as far along the joint as appears necessary.”
The Repairing & Restoration of Violins 'The Strad' Library, No. XII.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘poultice’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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josholalia's list
ineluctable, glossolalia, agog, echolalia, minaret, pillory, usury, gimlet, carioca, sniveling, concave, convex and 15 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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maygra
apropos, advantageous, perception, discombobulated, adumbrate, apogee, perihelion, mortmain, solitudinous, mediastinus, asumbrative, traveler and 498 more...
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MiaLuthien's list ♥
gambit, prehensile, coquetry, impunity, genuflect, ensconce, clavicle, delude, beget, castigate, life caching, convoluted and 478 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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collection
sanguine, vie, antebellum, glacial, treacly, iconoclast, lissom, anathema, serendipity, parsimonious, histrionic, contemptuous and 279 more...
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words found to be generally pleasing
alabaster, mahogany, camphor, coalesce, spire, portmanteau, gadabout, palaver, dolor, dour, dun, luminesce and 610 more...
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Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
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Word of the day.
Some days, there will be a word. That word is the word of the day. Other days shall remain wordless. That's just the way things go.
petulant, anisometropia, zoroaster, cram, affinity, proprietary, cupertino effect, sidereal, schmutz, icosanoids, vendetta, bougie and 137 more...
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tomax's Words
legerdemain, yayo, extravasation, wont, faze, coxswain, concomitant, enclave, unguent, rhabdomyolysis, effluent, puerile and 432 more...
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Vocab++
Words as I learn them.
fetid, mezzanine, hiatus, austerity, subliminal, resplendent, implacable, impugn, debase, exiguous, cirque, holster and 2538 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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justin's Words
braii, boerewors, lekker, viva, pap, lipodystrophy, lacticacidosis, sharp, chakalaka, defaulter, eish, oof and 256 more...
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The Lies of Locke Lamora
Words and phrases from Scott Lynch's book, The Lies of Locke Lamora
constable, windfall, sternum, commensurate, disinter, grotty, thresher shark, savvy, miser, reticent, magnanimous, trowel and 301 more...
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nfrank's Words
antediluvian, equivocate, inchoate, denouement, effulgent, edify, endemic, palimpsest, apropos, circumnavigate, circumlocution, cognoscente and 484 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for poultice.

actung Australian slang for 'bribe.' Dec 7, 2012
yarb A little later they sat down, chattering, to a festive dinner. But old Ebenezer had to have his in bed with a poultice on his sprained hock.
- William Steig, Farmer Palmer's Wagon Ride Sep 29, 2008