sudorific, a. and n.
(s(j)uːdəˈrɪfɪk)
Also 7 -iphicke, 7–8 -ifick.
[ad. mod.L. sūdōrificus: see -fic. Cf. F. sudorifique, It., Sp., Pg. sudorifico.]
A. adj.
1. Promoting or causing perspiration; diaphoretic.
| 1626 Bacon Sylva §706 A Decoction of Sudorifick Herbs. 1634 Lowe's Chirurg. (ed. 3) v. xii. 153 Decoct on sudoriphicke. 1732 Arbuthnot Rules of Diet in Aliments, etc. 271 Many things which are diuretick are likewise sudorifick. 1811 A. T. Thomson Lond. Disp. (1818) 584 This oil is stimulant, anti-spasmodic, anodyne, and sudorific. 1850 S. Dobell Rom. v. Poet. Wks. (1875) 59 Sudorific toil. 1869 R. T. Claridge Cold Water Cure 203 Sudorific Process. |
2. Connected with the secretion and the exudation of sweat; sudoriparous, perspiratory.
| c 1720 W. Gibson Farrier's Dispens. vii. (1734) 184 The Sudorifick Pores. 1799 Underwood Dis. Childhood (ed. 4) II. 169 Hydroa, or Sudamina is a trifling eruption from the sudorific glands. 1878 Hamilton Nervous Dis. 74 During the warmer season, when the sudorific apparatus requires a free capillary circulation. |
3. Consisting of sweat. rare.
| 1807 Syd. Smith Wks. (1850) 85 A miraculous image of our Lady of Serdenay, which always sweats—not ordinary sudorific matter—but an oil of great ecclesiastical efficacy. 1837 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Leech Folkstone, Did you ever..burst out into sudorific exudation like a cold thaw, with the thermometer at zero? |
4. Of limestone caves, etc.: That exudes.
| 1828 Duppa Trav. Italy, etc. 142 The steam-baths of Dædalus..consist of several sudorific grottos. |
B. n. A medicine or remedy which promotes perspiration; a diaphoretic.
| 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 547 She never swet in her life, nor could it be procur'd by ordinary Sudorificks. 1728 Chambers Cycl. s.v., Sudorificks only differ from Diaphoreticks in the Degree of their Action; the one promoting sensible Perspiration, the other insensible. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters III. 171 This bath becomes the most powerful and certain sudorific known. 1841 Brewster Martyrs Sci. ii. iv. (1856) 159 Antimony..a well known sudorific in the present practice of physic. 1883 J. Mackenzie Day-dawn Dark places 42 They actually rolled the miserable man in the burning sand as a sudorific! 1908 Sir H. Johnston G. Grenfell & Congo II. xxii. 557 A treatment of disease by massage or sudorifics. |
b. transf.
| 1777 H. Walpole Let. to C'tess Upper Ossory 29 June, We will keep ourselves warm with hot cockles and blind-man's-buff, and other old English sudorifics. |