defecate
Appearance
English
[edit]Alternative forms
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit](verb)
(adjective)
- IPA(key): /ˈdɛfɪkət/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Verb
[edit]defecate (third-person singular simple present defecates, present participle defecating, simple past and past participle defecated)
- (intransitive) To excrete feces from one's bowels.
- (transitive, archaic)
- To pass (something) as excrement; to purge.
- (also figurative) To clean (something) of dregs, impurities, etc.; to purify.
- 1661, Joseph Glanvill, chapter III, in The Vanity of Dogmatizing: Or Confidence in Opinions. […], London: […] E. C[otes] for Henry Eversden […], →OCLC, page 22:
- [I]f vve defæcate the notion from materiality, […] it vvill be as hard to apprehend, as that an empty vviſh ſhould remove Mountains: a ſuppoſition vvhich if realized, vvould relieve Siſyphus.
- 1744, Robert Boyle with Thomas Birch, edited by Thomas Birch, The Works of the Honourable Robert Boyle: In Five Volumes : to which is Prefixed, the Life of the Author[1], volume 1, compilation of Certain phyſiological eſsays and other tracts written at diſtant times, and on ſeveral occaſions by the honourable Robert Boyle ; wherein ſome of the tracts are enlarged by experiments and the work is increaſed by the addition of a diſcourse about the abſolute reſt in bodies. by Robert Boyle, part VI: Certain Physiological Essays, and other tracts written at diſtant Times, eſsay 7: The Hiſtory of Fluidity and Firmneſs, the ſecond part: of Firmneſs, page 265:
- […] I ſhall add, that proſecuting a hint a happened to meet with in the diſcourſe of a wandering chymiſt, I practiſed a way ſo to defecate the dark and muddy oil of amber drawn per ſe, that a pretty proportion of it would come over ſo tranſparent and finely coloured, that the experiment did not a little pleaſe thoſe I ſhewed it to.
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, page 224:
- Some are of opinion that such fat, standing waters make the best beer, and that seething doth defecate it […]
Synonyms
[edit]- (excrete feces): See Thesaurus:defecate
Derived terms
[edit]Related terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]
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Adjective
[edit]defecate (comparative more defecate, superlative most defecate)
- (obsolete) Freed from pollutants, dregs, lees, etc.; refined; purified.
- 1699, William Bates, Spiritual Perfection, unfolded and enforced:
- Till the soul be defecate from the dregs of sense.
Anagrams
[edit]Italian
[edit]Verb
[edit]defecate
- second-person plural present and imperative of defecare
Latin
[edit]Verb
[edit]dēfecāte
Spanish
[edit]Verb
[edit]defecate
- second-person singular voseo imperative of defecar combined with te
Categories:
- English terms borrowed from Latin
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English verbs
- English intransitive verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with archaic senses
- English terms with quotations
- English adjectives
- English terms with obsolete senses
- English heteronyms
- en:Bodily functions
- en:Feces
- Italian non-lemma forms
- Italian verb forms
- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms