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Costive   Listen
adjective
Costive  adj.  
1.
Retaining fecal matter in the bowels; having too slow a motion of the bowels; constipated.
2.
Reserved; formal; close; cold. (Obs.) "A costive brain." "Costive of laughter." "You must be frank, but without indiscretion; and close, but without being costive."
3.
Dry and hard; impermeable; unyielding. (Obs.) "Clay in dry seasons is costive, hardening with the sun and wind."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Costive" Quotes from Famous Books



... like, we were bandying it about when Trimalchio return'd, and having wip'd the slops from his face, wash'd his hands, and in a very little time, "Pardon me, my friends," said he, "I have been costive for several days, and my physicians were to seek about it, when a suppository of pomegranate wine, with the liquor of a pine-tree and vinegar relieved me; and now I hope my belly may be ashamed if it keep no better order; for otherwise I have such a rumbling ...
— The Satyricon • Petronius Arbiter

... prescribed by doctors as a capital demulcent; [198] and an admirable gargle for inflamed sore throat may be made by boiling two ounces of the Figs in half-a-pint of water, which is to be strained when cool. Figs cooked in milk make an excellent drink for costive persons. ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... the greatest part of those noble writings which hourly start up to entertain it. If it were not for a rainy day, a drunken vigil, a fit of the spleen, a course of physic, a sleepy Sunday, an ill run at dice, a long tailor's bill, a beggar's purse, a factious head, a hot sun, costive diet, want of books, and a just contempt of learning,—but for these events, I say, and some others too long to recite (especially a prudent neglect of taking brimstone inwardly), I doubt the number of authors and of writings would dwindle away to a degree most woeful to behold. To confirm ...
— A Tale of a Tub • Jonathan Swift

... nation is largely due to this particular quality. If I were an historian I would amuse myself with proving that we owe not only Magna Charta, but our whole Empire—Canada, Australia, and all the rest of them—to our costive habits of body. What befits a nation, however, does not always befit a man. To crush, in a fit of chronic biliousness, the resistance of Bengal and add its land to the British Empire, may be a racial virtue. To crush, in a fit of any kind, the resistance ...
— South Wind • Norman Douglas



Words linked to "Costive" :   laxative



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