-catgartic-

n. [ Gr. &unr_;. ] (Med.) A medicine that promotes alvine discharges; a purge; a purgative of moderate activity. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The cathartics are more energetic and certain in action that the laxatives, which simply increase the tendency to alvine evacuation; and less powerful and irritaint that the drastic purges, which cause profuse, repeated, and watery evacuations.

-- Ca*thar"tic*al*ly, adv. -- Ca*thar"tic*al*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]