{ Ca*thar"tic (?), Ca*thar"ic*al (?), } a. [Gr. &?;, fr. &?; to cleanse, fr. &?; pure; akin to F. chaste.] 1. (Med.) Cleansing the bowels; promoting evacuations by stool; purgative.

2. Of or pertaining to the purgative principle of senna, as cathartic acid.

Ca*thar"tic, n. [Gr. &?;.] (Med.) A medicine that promotes alvine discharges; a purge; a purgative of moderate activity.

&fist; 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.

• purgative; inducing catharsis
  
• A laxative