evacuation
(ɪˌvækjuːˈeɪʃən)
[ad. late L. ēvacuātiōn-em, n. of action f. ēvacuā-re: see evacuate.]
The action of evacuating; the condition of being evacuated.
1. spec. a. Med. The action or process of depleting (the body or any organ), or of clearing out (morbid matter, ‘humours’, etc.), by medicine or other artificial means. rare in recent use.
Before the present century the word was most frequently used with reference to bleeding; for this we have a large number of quotations.
| c 1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. (MS. A.) 100 Ofte tymes he haþ..to myche evacuacioun of blood. 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 53 a, To expell the sayd excrementes are ix sundry kyndes of evacuation..abstinence, vomyte, purgation by siege, letting of bloude, etc. 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1317 Evacuation, or clensing the body by clistre. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. v. ii. (1651) 398 Bleed on..If the parties strength will not admit much evacuation in this kinde at once, it [bleeding] must be assayed again and again. 1651 Biggs New Disp 136 One manner of evacuation of evil humours, purgation. 1748 Smollett Rod. Rand. xxxv. (1804) 229, I prepared for this important evacuation [of blood]. 1790 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (ed. 11) 217 The patient exhausted by mere evacuations, sunk under the disease. 1805 W. Saunders Min. Waters 467 This method..seems to have a preference over actual evacuation by the lancet. 1836 Todd Cycl. Anat. I. 179/1 The evacuation of the contents of the rectum and bladder. |
b. Phys. The process of discharging (waste matter, etc.) through the excretory organs (now
esp. from the bowels); an instance of this process; a manner in which it takes place.
| c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1054 A body..may not grow by the vertue of such degestion without expulsion or evacuation. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 176 After many euacuations, sitting down vpon an homely bed [he] died. 1643 R. O. Man's Mort. vii. 54 The evacuation of seed in carnall copulation. 1659 Hammond On Ps. cvi. 15 Annot. 537 Nature..seeks to discharge it selfe by the several evacuations. 1725 N. Robinson Th. Physick 73 This Evacuation [perspiration] is by far the greatest of any in the Body. 1727 Pope, &c., Art of Sinking 75 Has had some poetical evacuation, and no question was much the better for it in his health. 1748 Hartley Observ. Man i. iii. 399 The causes of it are..violent and long-continued Passions, profuse Evacuations. 1784 Johnson Let. 18 Mar. in Boswell, The dropsy..has now run almost totally away by natural evacuation. 1851 J. Davies Manual Mat Med. 375 To promote alvine evacuations. 1852 Sir W. Hamilton Discuss. 247 Under the terms crudity, coction and evacuation, were designated [according to the Humoral Pathology] the three principal periods of diseases. |
c. concr. Evacuated or excreted matter.
| 1625 Hart Anat. Ur. ii. viii. 100 Other euacuations, both vpwards and downwards, came. 1759 Sterne Tr. Shandy (1802) I. xxiii. 119 Others..will draw a man's character..merely from his evacuations. 1846 G. E. Day tr. Simon's Anim. Chem. II. 384 Sometimes we find, in the deposit from these evacuations, small white or yellow masses. |
2. a. gen. The action of emptying (a receptacle), or of removing (the contents of anything) so as to produce a vacancy; the depletion (of a treasury, one's resources, etc.). Sometimes with
transf. notion of 1 a. Also
fig.| 1598 R. Barckley Felic. Man (1631) 400 They [Lawyers & Physicions] have one common end, that is gaine, & the manner of both their proceedings..is—by evacuation! a 1600 Hooker (J.), Popery hath not been able to re-establish itself in any place, after provision made against it by utter evacuation of all Romish ceremonies. 1640 J. Dyke Worthy Commun. Ep. to Rdr., The continuall effluences of vertue out of Him..is not the least evacuation at all unto Him. 1697 Potter Antiq. Greece ii. xix. (T.), Their treasury..exhausted by so frequent evacuations. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. I. 52 It is pretty evident that their [grottoes'] evacuation has been owing to waters. 1806 Vince Hydrostat. vii. 79 The evacuation made by so swift a current. 1840 Macaulay Clive 30 Not content with these ways of getting rid of his money, [he] resorted to the most speedy and effectual of all modes of evacuation, a contested election. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. iii. 48 After the extraordinary evacuation of the large crateral space. 1877 tr. Ziemssen's Cycl. Med. XII. Index s.v. |
† b. The quantity removed by ‘evacuation’.
Obs.| 1794 G. Adams Nat. & Exp. Philos. I. iv. App. 136 The evacuations [sc. of air] and the remainders do both of them decrease in the same geometrical progression. |
† c. A clearing out, depleting (of population, etc.).
Obs.| 1669–94 Child Disc. Trade (ed. 4) 201 And if that evacuation [of population] be grown to an excess. 1677 Hale Prim. Orig. Man. ii. x. 238 Let us also consider the vast Evacuations of Men that England hath had by Forein Assistances lent to Forein Kingdoms. 1755 Mrs. Delany Autobiog. (1861) III. 362 There will be a great evacuation at Bath of fine folks. |
3. Mil. † a. The clearing (a place) of troops (
obs.).
b. The withdrawal (by an army or commander) from occupation of a country, fortress, town, etc.
c. The removal (of a garrison, the population of a place, etc.).
| 1710 Lond. Gaz. No. 4666/1 The Deputies..have insisted..on the Evacuation of the Kingdom of all Foreign Troops. 1783 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 221 New York..the final evacuation of that city. 1796 Burke Corr. IV. 354 An evacuation of the Mediterranean, as a preliminary to a war with Spain. 1839 Thirlwall Greece IV. 125 They offered no concession beyond the evacuation of Decelea and the Attic territory. 1863 Kinglake Crimea (1876) I. xvii. 378 A declaration..which made the further continuance of peace dependent upon the evacuation of the Principalities. 1880 M{supc}Carthy Own Times III. xxxiv. 92 The time for the evacuation of the garrison came. |
| attrib. a 1854 G. Furman Antiquities Long Island (1875) 269 The Evacuation day..has been observed as a species of holiday on the west end of Long Island. 1880 Webster (Suppl.), Evacuation day, the anniversary of the day on which the British army evacuated the city of New York, November 25, 1783. 1939 Times 2 Nov. 8/7 Parents should remember that such educational facilities as can be provided in the evacuation areas are not likely to be nearly so good as those available in the reception areas. 1940 Archit. Rev. LXXXVII. 101 (title) Evacuation camp. 1940 E. T. Seton Trail of Artist-Naturalist 241 Monday, which, being Evacuation Day, was a public holiday. |
4. The action of making void and of no effect; cancelling, nullification.
Cf. evacuate v. 4.
| 1650 Vind. Hammond's Addr. §66 The suspension of the latter, farre from including the evacuation, or cancelling of the former. 1691 Beverley Thous. Years Kingd. Christ 21 Putting Them quite under his Feet, by that perfect distinguishing Catargesis, or Evacuation of All Power, Motion, or Action. 1750 Johnson Rambler No. 31 ¶10 Sophisms tending to the confusion of all principles, and the evacuation of all duties. |