Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Strongly laxative: Having the effect of stimulating evacuation of the bowels.
   • Emotionally purging: Relating to or providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions, often in the context of art or experience.

2. Noun:

   • A purging medicine: A substance, especially a medicine, that strongly stimulates evacuation of the bowels.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • The doctor prescribed a cathartic substance to relieve the patient's constipation.
  • Watching that tragic film was a cathartic experience; it helped her release pent-up sadness.
  • Many people find writing in a journal to be a cathartic process.

• Noun:

  • Castor oil is a well-known cathartic.
  • In the past, various herbal cathartics were commonly used.

Advanced Usage

• Cathartic effect: The purging or relieving effect of something.

  • The intense therapy session had a profound cathartic effect on him.

• Cathartic release: The act of releasing repressed emotions.

  • She felt a sense of cathartic release after finally confronting her fears.

Variants and Related Words

• Catharsis (noun): The process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.

  • The play provided an opportunity for catharsis for the audience.

• Cathartically (adverb): In a cathartic manner.

  • She cried cathartically during the movie's climax.

Synonyms

• Adjective (laxative sense): Purgative, evacuant, aperient.
• Adjective (emotional sense): Cleansing, purging, purifying, releasing.

Related Phrases

• To have/serve a cathartic function: To act as a means of emotional release.

  • For many, vigorous exercise serves a cathartic function.

• Cathartic moment: A specific point of emotional release.

  • The character's confession was the cathartic moment of the entire novel.

Adjective

1. strongly laxative
2. emotionally purging (of e.g. art)
3. emotionally purging

Noun

1. a purging medicine; stimulates evacuation of the bowels