apertive

comparative more apertive · superlative most apertive

1. medicineCausing the body to open; dissolving blockages or having a purgative or diuretic effect.

   The wine made from this sap is said to be apertive, and detersive.

   1855, Cuthbert William Johnson, The Farmer's and Planter's Encyclopedia of Rural Affairs, page 179

   3 more examples

   Both its root and seeds are hydragogeous, and very apertive, and therefuore usefull in hydroptical and watry diseases.

   1657, A Medicinal Dispensatory, containing the whole body of physick, page 261

   Oppression and stopping at Brest and Stomach. Though very few live when they come to these things, yet here and there one makes a shift to creep over this and many other threatning signes; but you must not goe about to cure this as you doe other stoppings in the stomach, as by squills oximells, bomits, but by apertive medicines as this:

   1666, William Boghurst, Loimographia, Or an Experimentall Relation of the Plague, of what hath happened Remarkable in the last Plague in the City of London

   I have found it in the waters of Hornhausen, which owe to this salt their apertive and diuretic properties.

   1923, Joseph William Mellor, A Comprehensive Treatise on Inorganic and Theoretical Chemistry

2. Pertaining to or using an aperture; apertural.

   Seasat was launched in June 1978 and carries a synthetic apertive radar.

   1980, John H. Menkes, Barry S. Siegal, Remote Sensing in Geology, page 86

   2 more examples

   In this part the author leaves the stylus method and passes on to the interference method, which is very valuable because it can resolve scratches down to a width of about 0.00002" or 0.00003", provided that a high apertive microscope objective is used.

   1977, T. R. Thomas, M. B. King, Surface topography in engineering, page 42

   From the apertive field, equivalent magnetic currents are obtained using the principle of equivalence.

   1988, Canadian Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering, page 117

3. Tending to open.

   Eberhart is a philosopher-poet whose avowed ambition is “to open/ Poetry to apertive speculation.”

   1983, The Publishers Weekly - Volume 224, page 56

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   Prefractures are weak or apertive when the prefixed vowel has a greater closure formed by the tongue or lips than the original vowel, so that the result is a progressive opening.

   1969, Alexander J. Ellis, On Early English Pronunciation, page 1308

   I was imbued with an amorphous sense of capability — but that word makes little sense to me. It was a sense of apertive aptness.

   2013, Doc Togden, an odd boy, page 105

plural apertives

1. A substance that can be used medicinally for its apertive effect.

   The bark is also used in a liquid given as an apertive to horses and cattle.

   1999, J. C. Dagar, Plant Resources of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, page 475

   2 more examples

   The Love Bush seems to have been used in olden days in medicine, for Browne in 1789 writes: "It has been always esteemed as a diuretic and apertive, and formerly used as an ingredient in come of the compositions of the shops".

   1942, Natural History Society of Jamaica, Natural History Notes, page 149

   Gentian has been used for centuries as a tonic to aid digestion; and it is currently employed in the manufacture of apertives and bitters, notably Gentiane, a Swiss digestive liquor.

   1979, Jane I. LaRue, Guide to selected medicinal herbs, page 10