vermifuge

comparative more vermifuge · superlative most vermifuge

1. datedmedicineActing as a drug to cause the expulsion or death of intestinal worms.

   Synonyms: anthelmintic

plural vermifuges

1. datedmedicineA drug that causes the expulsion or death of intestinal worms, such as tapeworms.

   Vermifuges expelled the worms and stopped intestinal bleeding, but hematologic responses were uneven and subject to relapses attributed to obscure wormborne toxicities.

   1995 January 1, National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs: Volume 67, National Academies Press, →ISBN, page 26

   2 more examples

   1867, Advertisement, The Prairie Farmer, Volume 20, New Series, page 264, We have been informed that the usual practice of Merchants, Farmers and Planters, in ordering their supplies of Dr. McLane's Celebrated VERMIFUGE, has been to simply write and order Vermifuge. The consequence is that instead of the genuine Dr. McLanes's Vermifuge, they very frequently get one or other of the many worthless preparations called Vermifuge now before the public.

   [...]; that the fruit is very good eating, either raw or boiled, and that the seeds, distinguished by a mustard-like pungency, are an efficacious vermifuge for children.

   1875, James Herman De Ricci, Fiji: Our New Province in the South Seas, page 135

   Synonyms: anthelmintic