English

Alternative forms

• abstergent

Adjective

abstersive ‎(comparative more abstersive, superlative most abstersive)

1. Cleansing; purging; abstergent. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]^[1]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

   • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essayes, London: Edward Blount, OCLC 946730821, I.40:

     If he cannot digest a strong and abstersive drug, for to remove his evill, let him at least take a lenitive pill to ease the same.

Translations

Noun

abstersive ‎(plural abstersives)

1. (now rare) Something cleansing; detergent; abstergent. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]^[1]
   • (Can we date this quote?), John Milton, (Please provide the title of the work):

     The strong abstersive of some heroic magistrate.

References

1. 1 2 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 10

French

Adjective

abstersive

1. feminine singular of abstersif