cathartic
/kə'θɑ:tik/
Học thuậtThân thiện
Definition
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.
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
- strongly laxative
- emotionally purging (of e.g. art)
- emotionally purging
Noun
- a purging medicine; stimulates evacuation of the bowels