as in drug
a substance used to induce or speed up the process of defecation
In the past, purgatives were sometimes administered in cases of accidental poisoning.
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Recent Examples of purgative
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
Or merely the tall-tale purgative of a frantic Purgatorian?
—Tom Nolan, WSJ, 11 June 2021
Blackshirts forced their opponents to drink castor oil and other purgatives, and then sent them home, wrenching with pain and covered in their own feces.
—Michael Ebner, Slate Magazine, 30 Jan. 2017
The persistent and sickening violence of Detroit could work as a powerful purgative, a corrective medicine for deprogramming those who doubt the reality of police brutality.
—Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 8 Aug. 2017
Elsa Richardson, TIME, 3 Oct. 2024
Or merely the tall-tale purgative of a frantic Purgatorian?
—Tom Nolan, WSJ, 11 June 2021
Blackshirts forced their opponents to drink castor oil and other purgatives, and then sent them home, wrenching with pain and covered in their own feces.
—Michael Ebner, Slate Magazine, 30 Jan. 2017
The persistent and sickening violence of Detroit could work as a powerful purgative, a corrective medicine for deprogramming those who doubt the reality of police brutality.
—Josephine Livingstone, New Republic, 8 Aug. 2017
Recent Examples of Synonyms for purgative
Noun
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Several personal assistants were tasked with setting up the red lights and candles, delivering baby oil, and sometimes picking up and delivering drugs and thousands of dollars in cash for freak-offs.—
Cheyenne Roundtree,
Rolling Stone,
26 June 2025
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Why Specialty Clinics Feel The Pain First Specialty clinics face a perfect storm of challenges: high-cost drugs, evolving payer policies and thousands of diagnosis and procedure codes that need to match up precisely.—
Sally Ragab,
Forbes.com,
26 June 2025
Noun
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Former President Joe Biden's DOJ, riding a wave of anti-corporatism on the left, proposed a far-reaching set of remedies that strayed well beyond the original case.—
Dan Perry,
MSNBC Newsweek,
18 June 2025
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If Google’s Ai Mode Succeeds? One possible remedy for content providers — which The Atlantic highlights — is to maintain direct access to their content consumers.—
Peter Cohan,
Forbes.com,
18 June 2025
Cite this Entry
“Purgative.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/purgative. Accessed 3 Jul. 2025.
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