patent medicine

noun

|Updated on: 22 Jul 2018

Definition of patent medicine

: a nonprescription medicinal preparation that is typically protected by a trademark and whose contents are incompletely disclosed; also : any drug that is a proprietary

Note: Patent medicine is often used to refer to a product (such as an elixir, tonic, or liniment) that was marketed as a medicine in the U.S. during the 1800s and early 1900s but was typically of unproven effectiveness and questionable safety.

See patent medicine defined for kids

Recent Examples of patent medicine from the Web

Perfume labels, posters advertising circuses, patent medicines, 5-cent cigars, and all manner of things — even ear tags for goats.

— carl nolte, SFChronicle.com, "At the Box SF, previous eras’ castoffs prove valuable today," 8 July 2018
But more than that, widespread opiate use in Victorian America didn’t start with the patent medicines.

— jon kelvey, Smithsonian, "How Advertising Shaped the First Opioid Epidemic," 3 Apr. 2018
Carter’s little pills began as Carter’s Little Liver Pills, a patent medicine developed in 1868 by Erie, Pennsylvania’s Samuel J. Carter.

— caroline rogers, Southern Living, "The History of Carter’s Little Pills," 31 Jan. 2018
Many patent medicines ended up relying on large quantities of morphine or cocaine to give users a high instead of actually healing them.

— ben panko, Smithsonian, "Where Did the FDA Come From, And What Does It Do?," 8 Feb. 2017
That meant people turned to the massive industry of patent medicines, brewed concoctions marketed by people professing medical knowledge.

— kat eschner, Smithsonian, "Coca-Cola’s Creator Said the Drink Would Make You Smarter," 29 Mar. 2017
Originally known as Purdue Frederick, the first iteration of the company was founded in 1892 on New York’s Lower East Side as a peddler of patent medicines.

— christopher glazek, Esquire, "The Secretive Family Making Billions From the Opioid Crisis," 16 Oct. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'patent medicine.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of patent medicine

1770

in the meaning defined above

See Words from the same year

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Medical Dictionary

patent medicine

noun pat·ent medicine \ ˈpat-ᵊnt-, British usually ˈpāt- \

medical Definition of patent medicine

: a packaged nonprescription drug which is protected by a trademark and whose contents are incompletely disclosed; also : any drug that is a proprietary

Law Dictionary

patent medicine

noun

legal Definition of patent medicine

: a packaged nonprescription drug which is protected by a trademark and whose contents are incompletely disclosed; also : any drug that is a proprietary