defecate
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From the participle stem of Latin dēfaecāre (“to purify”), from de- and faex (“dreg, impurity”).
Pronunciation[edit]
(verb)
(adjective)
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.
- (now rare) To purify, to clean of dregs etc.
- 1744, Robert Boyle; Thomas Birch, Thomas Birch, editor, 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: Printed by 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 […].
- (now rare, transitive) To purge; to pass (something) as excrement.
Synonyms[edit]
- (excrete feces): See Thesaurus:defecate
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 derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
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- en:Bodily functions
- en:Feces
- Italian non-lemma forms
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- Latin non-lemma forms
- Latin verb forms
- Spanish non-lemma forms
- Spanish verb forms