How to Use patent medicine in a Sentence

patent medicine

noun

• In the 1670s, what came to be called Jesuit bark had made its way into a popular patent medicine, along with rose leaves, lemon juice, and wine.
  — Adam Rogers, Wired, 11 Nov. 2020
• The patent medicine industry would not fully collapse until the 1930s.
  — Nicole Hemmer, CNN, 28 Sep. 2021
• With the patent medicine business in its prime, elixirs and liniments promised relief from every complaint under the sun.
  — Lloyd Minor, Fortune, 9 Sep. 2019
• Medicine shows were the entertainment arm of one of the era's most powerful industries: patent medicine.
  — Nicole Hemmer, CNN, 28 Sep. 2021
• But more than that, widespread opiate use in Victorian America didn’t start with the patent medicines.
  — Jon Kelvey, Smithsonian, 3 Apr. 2018
• Fast forward to 2019 and the echoes of patent medicine in today’s marketplace are resounding, complete with claims of panacea treatment and the co-opting of real science.
  — Lloyd Minor, Fortune, 9 Sep. 2019
• Perfume labels, posters advertising circuses, patent medicines, 5-cent cigars, and all manner of things — even ear tags for goats.
  — Carl Nolte, SFChronicle.com, 8 July 2018
• In a deal that creates a behemoth in the market for everyday drugs, Pfizer agreed to merge its off-patent medicines business with Mylan, a generics drugmaker.
  — The Economist, 3 Aug. 2019
• Two of the handmade figures represented a banjo player and a character dubbed Doc Cogwheel, a patent medicine salesperson.
  — Dewayne Bevil, orlandosentinel.com, 7 Dec. 2020
• 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, 8 Feb. 2017
• Who wouldn’t be thrilled by a single pill that could fix every unrelated malady? Pink Pills for Pale People were a ubiquitous patent medicine and thus a constant target for criticism.
  — David Reamer, Anchorage Daily News, 21 Nov. 2021
• This solution certainly beats going to the IMF, which will offer its patent medicine of fiscal contraction, and perhaps capital controls.
  — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 12 Aug. 2018
• Sales of purgatives, tonics, syrups and patent medicines like Carter’s Little Liver Pills went through the roof as ordinary people were encouraged to closely monitor the frequency and quality of their bowel movements.
  — Elsa Richardson, TIME, 3 Oct. 2024
• That meant people turned to the massive industry of patent medicines, brewed concoctions marketed by people professing medical knowledge.
  — Kat Eschner, Smithsonian, 29 Mar. 2017
• In addition, companies and drugstores exploited loopholes by creating and selling patent medicines with high alcohol content.
  — David Reamer | Alaska History, Anchorage Daily News, 23 July 2023
• But the likeness ends there because, to be clear, Tyler did not use the occasion to tout patent medicines.
  — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 27 Oct. 2025
• By the end of the century, lithia water (water with a trace amount of lithium) was marketed as a patent medicine.
  — Shayla Love, The Atlantic, 4 Oct. 2024