{ } a. [ Gr. &unr_;, fr. &unr_; to cleanse, fr. &unr_; pure; akin to F. chaste. ] 1. (Med.) Cleansing the bowels; promoting evacuations by stool; purgative. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Of or pertaining to the purgative principle of senna, as cathartic acid. [ 1913 Webster ]

See catherine wheel. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL. catharista, fr. Gr. &unr_; clean, pure. ] One aiming at or pretending to a greater purity of like than others about him; -- applied to persons of various sects. See Albigenses. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ NL., fr. Gr. &unr_;. See Cathartic. ] (Med.) 1. A natural or artificial purgation of any passage, as of the mouth, bowels, etc.

2. (Psychotherapy) The process of relieving an abnormal excitement by reëstablishing the association of the emotion with the memory or idea of the event that first caused it, and of eliminating it by complete expression (called the abreaction). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

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 ]

n. (Chem.) The bitter, purgative principle of senna. It is a glucoside with the properties of a weak acid; -- called also cathartic acid, and cathartina. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. China; -- an old name for the Celestial Empire, said have been introduced by Marco Polo and to be a corruption of the Tartar name for North China (Khitai, the country of the Khitans.) [ 1913 Webster ]

Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]