Definitions

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

  • noun A medicinal fluid rubbed into the skin to soothe pain or relieve stiffness.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In medicine, a liquid preparation for external application, especially one of an oily consistency.

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

  • noun A liquid or semiliquid preparation of a consistence thinner than an ointment, applied to the skin by friction, esp. one used as a sedative or a stimulant.

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

  • noun A topical medical preparation intended to be rubbed into the skin with friction, such as to relieve symptoms of arthritis.

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

  • noun a medicinal liquid that is rubbed into the skin to relieve muscular stiffness and pain

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Late Latin linīmentum, from Latin linere, linīre, to rub over, anoint; see lei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin linimentum.

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Examples

  • There is a liniment from the Chinese apothecary called dit da jow.

    Rub It In Steve Perry 2007

  • Another way is to bruise leeches with oil, and rub the verge with this ointment; or, if it is preferred, the leeches may be put into a bottle, and, thus enclosed, buried in a warm dung-hill until they are dissolved into a coherent mass and form a sort of liniment, which is used for repeatedly anointing the member.

    gimcrack hospital (PG) nursemyra 2008

  • Another way is to bruise leeches with oil, and rub the verge with this ointment; or, if it is preferred, the leeches may be put into a bottle, and, thus enclosed, buried in a warm dung-hill until they are dissolved into a coherent mass and form a sort of liniment, which is used for repeatedly anointing the member.

    gimcrack hospital (PG) 2008

  • Some of these "Method" concerns throw in some absurd kind of liniment, salve or ointment -- tell you the secret lies in this "lymph" or whatever they call it rather than in their appliances.

    Cluthe's Advice to the Ruptured Cluthe Rupture Institute

  • She was ladened with gifts: a jar of tomato relish, a huge cake of maple sugar, a bottle of a new kind of liniment for Grandpa, and such an armful of dahlias and phlox and asters and gladioli as Christina had never seen in her life.

    In Orchard Glen Mary Esther Miller MacGregor 1918

  • Mammy, which I suspect of being a kind of liniment that mother had to learn to make on account of the number of the boys and their bruises.

    Over Paradise Ridge A Romance Maria Thompson Daviess 1898

  • However, he had some merits; for instance, he could hash hare well and his first profession having been that of distiller, he passed much of his time -- or his masters ', rather -- in trying to invent a new kind of liniment; he also succeeded in the preparation of lamp-black.

    Bohemians of the Latin Quarter Henry Murger 1841

  • Stale layers of sweat were sweetened by liniment oil and disinfectant.

    Michael Watson: 'I really come alive by helping others' 2011

  • Stale layers of sweat were sweetened by liniment oil and disinfectant.

    Michael Watson: 'I really come alive by helping others' 2011

  • He got a big stomachache and had to rub his legs with liniment oil.

    Eliza’s Freedom Road Jerdine Nolen 2011

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