▪ I. † ˈdefecate, ppl. a. obs.
Also 5 deficate, 7 defæcate.
[ad. L. dēfæcāt-us pa. pple. of dēfæcāre (see next). In early times used as pa. pple. of defecate v.]
1. Purified from dregs, clarified, clear and pure. a. as pple.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 34 b, Ale or biere welle and perfytely brewed and clensed, and.. settled and defecate. 1650 W. Brough Sacr. Princ. (1659) 257 Joys..defecate from your dregs of guilt. |
b. as adj.
| 1576 Newton Lemnie's Complex. (1633) 143 This pure, cleare, defecate, lovely, and amiable juyce. 1621–51 Anat. Mel. ii. ii. i. i. 233 Many rivers..defecate and clear. 1671 R. Bohun Wind 235 The Air is generally defecate and serene. 1684 tr. Bonet's Merc. Compit. v. 146 It renders the mass of bloud defæcate. |
2. Mentally, morally, or spiritually purified.
| c 1450 Henryson Test. Cres. (R.), Sith ye are all seven deficate Perticipant of diuine sapience. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. i. i, Calvinists, more defecate than the rest, yet..not free from superstition. 1653 H. More Conject. Cabbal. (1713) 23 A pure and defecate æthereal Spirit. 1742 Young Nt. Th. ix. 1209 Minds elevate, and panting for unseen, And defecate from sense. |
▪ II. defecate, v.
(ˈdɛfɪkeɪt)
Also 6 deficate, 7–9 defæcate.
[f. ppl. stem of L. dēfæcāre to cleanse from dregs, purify, f. de- I. 6 + fæx, pl. fæc-es dregs. Cf. F. déféquer (16th c. in Littré).]
1. trans. To clear from dregs or impurities; to purify, clarify, refine.
| 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 58 When..it iz defecated by al nights standing, the drink iz the better. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. i. ii. ii. i, Some are of opinion that such fat standing waters make the best Beere, and that seething doth defecate it. 1707 Sloane Jamaica I. 20 The gum, which they defecate in water by boiling and purging. 1753 Hervey Theron & Asp. (1757) I. xii. 457 Some like the Distillers Alembick sublimate; others like the Common sewers defæcate. 1881 H. Nicholson From Sword to Share xxxii. 255 The juice should be.. defecated and concentrated on the most approved methods. |
2. fig. To purify from pollution or extraneous admixture (of things immaterial).
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. i. iii, Till Luther's time..who began upon a sudden to defecate, and as another sun to drive away those foggy mists of superstition. 1648 Boyle Seraph. Love (1700) 58 To Defecate and Exalt our Conceptions. 1665 Glanvill Scepsis Sci. i. 17 If we defæcate the notion from materiality. 1751 Johnson Rambler No. 177 ¶4 To defecate and clear my mind by brisker motions. 1866 Lowell Biglow P. Introd. Poems 1890 II. 162 A growing tendency to curtail language into a mere convenience, and to defecate it of all emotion. 1870 W. M. Rossetti Life of Shelley p. xx, To defecate life of its misery. |
3. To remove (dregs or fæces) by a purifying process; to purge away; to void as excrement. Also fig.
| 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1862) I. iv. 13 It [the air] soon began to defecate and to depose these particles upon the oily surface. 1862 Goulburn Pers. Relig. iv. vii. (1873) 311 To defecate the dregs of the mind. 1872 H. Macmillan True Vine iii. 91 By the death of the body, sin is defecated. |
b. absol. To void the fæces.
| 1864 in Webster. 1878 A. Hamilton Nerv. Dis. 108 The patient should not be allowed to get up to defecate. 1889 J. M. Duncan Clin. Lect. Dis. Women xiv. (ed. 4) 96. |
Hence ˈdefecating vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1855 Maurice Let. in Life (1884) II. vii. 277 Get it clear by any defæcating processes. 1885 Manch. Even. News 29 May 2/2 The use of defecating powders. |