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Purgative can be used as a noun as well as an adjective. For centuries, doctors prescribed purgatives—that is, laxatives—for all kinds of ailments, not knowing anything better to do. Physical cleansing has always reminded people of emotional and spiritual cleansing, as expressed in the saying "Cleanliness is next to godliness". So we may say, for example, that confession has a purgative effect on the soul. Some psychologists used to claim that expressing your anger is purgative; but in fact it may generally be no better for your emotional life than taking a laxative, and can sometimes really foul things up.
Examples of purgative in a Sentence
Kyndall Cunningham, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018
Sensing the wound in our collective consciousness, the Tom-ness of Cruise acts as both purgative and balm.
—Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 7 July 2023
That demon was kicky and gross and fun and purgative.
—Wesley Stenzel, EW.com, 19 Jan. 2023
By her mid-twenties, Hanawalt had moved to New York and turned her purgative art into a profession.
—The New Yorker, 15 Aug. 2021
It is believed that one of her purgative acts, on becoming Anna Kavan, was to destroy most of her letters and diaries.
—Leo Robson, The New Yorker, 23 Mar. 2020
Taking out the trash is like administering a purgative to my house.
—Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2019
Saline police chief Jerrod Hart said management got a tip from an employee who had been made aware of the brownies’ purgative properties, and after confiscating the offending baked goods, contacted the authorities.
—Madeleine Aggeler, The Cut, 15 May 2018
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
Dictionary Entries Near purgative
Cite this Entry
“Purgative.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/purgative. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
purgative
1 of 2 adjective
purgative
2 of 2 noun
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