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Astringent   /əstrˈɪndʒənt/   Listen
Astringent

adjective
1.
Sour or bitter in taste.  Synonyms: acerb, acerbic.
2.
Tending to draw together or constrict soft organic tissue.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Astringent" Quotes from Famous Books



... Pendle reappeared in Beorminster, wonderfully improved in health and spirits. The astringent waters of Nauheim had strengthened her heart, so that it now beat with regular throbs, where formerly it had fluttered feebly; they had brought the blood to the surface of the skin, and had flushed her ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume

... piano-stool, Cope, standing alongside, would lay a hand on his. Mrs. Phillips noticed these minor familiarities and remarked on them to Foster, who had lately wheeled his chair in. Foster, a few days later, passed the comment on to Randolph, with an astringent comment of his own.—At all events, Amy Leffingwell remained in the distance, and George Pearson shared the distance ...
— Bertram Cope's Year • Henry Blake Fuller

... rarely of benefit in the local forms of hyperidrosis, and external applications are seldom of service in general hyperidrosis. Precipitated sulphur, a teaspoonful twice daily, is also well spoken of, combined, if necessary, with an astringent. ...
— Essentials of Diseases of the Skin • Henry Weightman Stelwagon

... he feigned sick and sent for Osmond. That worthy prescribed a pill and a draught, the former laxative, the latter astringent. This ceremony performed, Mr. Hardie gossipped with him; and, after a detour or two, glided to his real anxiety. "Sampson tells me you know more about Captain Dodd's case than he does: he is not very clear as to the cause of ...
— Hard Cash • Charles Reade

... found that our tea leaves, which had been boiled twice and would otherwise have been thrown away, relieved the pain if tied into some cotton and kept pressed against the eyes. The tannic acid in the tea acted as an astringent. A snowblind man can see practically nothing anyhow and so he is not much worse off if a handkerchief is tied ...
— The Worst Journey in the World, Volumes 1 and 2 - Antarctic 1910-1913 • Apsley Cherry-Garrard

... preferred before many other remedies, as not onely procuring these evacuations; but also (which is more to be noted) staying them, when they grow to any excesse. For seeing that here are minerals contained both hot, cold, dry, aperitive, astringent, &c. there is none so simple but must needs thinke and grant, that it cannot otherwise bee but good and wholesome in grievances, and diseases, which in their owne natures ...
— Spadacrene Anglica - The English Spa Fountain • Edmund Deane

... genus Dracaena, at the Cape of Good Hope, in China, and in New Zealand. But in New Zealand it is superseded by the form of the yucca; for the Dracaena borealis of Aiton is a Convallaria, of which it has all the appearance. The astringent juice, known in commerce by the name of dragon's blood, is, according to the inquiries we made on the spot, the produce of several American plants, which do not belong to the same genus and of which some are lianas. At Laguna, ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America • Alexander von Humboldt

... abundant a century after the above was written. In the year 1590, when a severe shock of earthquake threatened destruction to the tower of the Cathedral—and it was absolutely necessary to set about immediate repairs—the liquid which was applied to make the most astringent mortar, was WINE: "l'on se servit de vin, qui fut alors en abondance, pour faire le platre de cette batise." Denkmahle der Baukunst und Bildneren des Mittelalters in dem Oesterreichischen Kaiserthume. Germ. Fr. Part iii. ...
— A Bibliographical, Antiquarian and Picturesque Tour in France and Germany, Volume Three • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... trees being less than thirty years of age, but has already become widely distributed, as well as a favourite fruit amongst many. It is a very showy fruit when well grown, but must be thoroughly ripe before it is eaten, as, if not, it is extremely astringent, and anyone who has tackled an unripe fruit has no wish to repeat the experience in a hurry. There are many varieties of this fruit, some of which are seedless, and others more or less seedy. The seedless kinds are ...
— Fruits of Queensland • Albert Benson

... should be dusted over with very fine powder of gum sandarach, and then replaced. Astringent fomentations; as an infusion of oak-bark, or a slight solution of alum. Horizontal rest ...
— Zoonomia, Vol. II - Or, the Laws of Organic Life • Erasmus Darwin

... Hearken and take good heed. You are, quoth Panurge, by cockshobby, a right honest man, and I love you with all my heart. Eat a little of this quince-pie; it is very proper and convenient for the shutting up of the orifice of the ventricle of the stomach, because of a kind of astringent stypticity which is in that sort of fruit, and is helpful to the first concoction. But what? I think I speak Latin before clerks. Stay till I give you somewhat to drink out of this Nestorian goblet. Will you have another draught of white hippocras? Be not ...
— Gargantua and Pantagruel, Complete. • Francois Rabelais

... reminded of many seemingly well-authenticated cases of escape from the fire-ordeal. It has been usual to ascribe the preservation of those who have walked bare-footed over heated ploughshares to the use of astringent lotions: and where opportunity existed for preparation of that kind, their escape may perhaps be so explained. But in most instances the accused was in the custody of the accusers, and not likely to have access to such phylacteries. ...
— The International Monthly Magazine - Volume V - No II • Various

... concerning the contemporary reception of Gulliver's Travels exhibit two sides of Jonathan Swift's character—the pleasant (that is, merry, witty, amusing) and the unpleasant (that is, sarcastic, envious, disaffected). A person with a powerful ego and astringent sense of humor, Swift must have been a delightful friend, if somewhat difficult, but also a dangerous enemy. A Letter from a Clergyman (1726), here reproduced in a facsimile of its first and only edition, is a reaction typical of those who regard Swift ...
— A Letter From a Clergyman to his Friend, - with an Account of the Travels of Captain Lemuel Gulliver • Anonymous

... a thick glutinous mass, with a rather astringent taste, and is eaten with salt, limes, and chilies. Sago-bread is made in large quantities, by baking it into cakes in a small clay oven containing six or eight slits side by side, each about three-quarters of an inch wide, and six or eight inches square. The raw sago is broken up, dried in ...
— The Malay Archipelago - Volume II. (of II.) • Alfred Russel Wallace

... dressed with astringent herbs, and his broken leg put into splints in accordance with the rude but not ineffective surgery of the time, he was placed on a rough litter of interlaced branches and carried back by the ...
— In the Morning of Time • Charles G. D. Roberts

... scraped off the bottoms of old ships, and thought to be astringent and good for ulcers. Also, a highly preservative varnish in use by the ancients ...
— The Sailor's Word-Book • William Henry Smyth

... acted like an astringent on Molly's relaxed feelings. He intended that they should do so; it was the truest kindness to her; but he walked away from her with a sharp pang at his heart, which he stunned into numbness as soon as he could by ...
— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

... the servant girl's arms and told her to run with me through the garden and out by a back way to Peter Lawson to have something done to stop the bleeding. He simply pushed a wad of cotton into my mouth after soaking it in some brown astringent stuff, and told me to be sure to keep my mouth shut and all would soon be well. Mother put me to bed, calmed my fears, and told me to lie still and sleep like a gude bairn. But just as I was dropping off to sleep I swallowed the ...
— The Story of My Boyhood and Youth • John Muir

... are bad and unforgiven here, it will not be well for us in the next existence, is the chief influence that keeps civilization from rushing back to semi-barbarism, and semi-barbarism from rushing into midnight savagery, and midnight savagery from extinction; for it is the astringent impression of all nations, Christian and heathen, that there is no future chance for those ...
— New Tabernacle Sermons • Thomas De Witt Talmage

... important element of the tea leaf, and it varies greatly in percentage in different teas, and increases with the age of the growing leaf. It is the cause of the rasping, puckering, astringent effect upon the tongue and interior of ...
— Tea Leaves • Francis Leggett & Co.

... others. Some feeds, such as clover, and particularly second crop, produce it; foreign bodies, such as nails, wheat chaff, and corncobs becoming lodged in the mouth, also are causes. If the cause is removed no further attention is necessary, as a rule. Astringent washes may be applied to the mouth as a gargle or by means ...
— Special Report on Diseases of the Horse • United States Department of Agriculture

... own individual law, which is just as sacred and unalterable as the general law. All the art of the gardener cannot transform the oak to a willow, or produce the blue dahlia, though by its aid the sour crab has become a mellow apple, and the astringent pear, the luscious Bartlett. We need to study the great subject of education more, and to talk less about the special peculiarities of woman's education, and we shall find that the greater includes the less, and that ...
— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett

... is obtained tolerably pure in commerce in colorless transparent crystalline masses, having an acid, sweetish, astringent taste. It is soluble in 18 parts of water at 60 deg. F., and in its own weight of water at 212 deg. F.; but the excess crystallizes out upon cooling. The solution reddens litmus paper, and, when impure, usually contains traces of oxide of iron. Upon the addition ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 401, September 8, 1883 • Various

... your food, is | | ABSOLUTELY SAFE AND DELIGHTFUL. | | | | The Universal Digestive Tea, | | 2/2, 2/10, 3/6 per lb. | | | | is ordinary tea treated with oxygen, which neutralises the injurious | | tannin. Every pound of ordinary tea contains about two ounces of | | tannin. Tannin is a powerful astringent substance to tan skins into | | leather. The tannin in ordinary teas tans, or hardens, the lining of | | the digestive organs, also the food eaten. This prevents the | | healthful nourishment of the body and undoubtedly eventuates in | | nervous disorders. On receipt ...
— The Chemistry of Food and Nutrition • A. W. Duncan

... great bunches of goldenrod, a pink anemone, harebells of a more delicate blue than we had ever seen before, the flower of the wolf-berry, fireweed, and ladies'-tresses. The third day we identified the bear-berry or kinnikinic-tobacco (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) with its astringent leaves, and that dear friend of lower latitudes and far-away days, the pink lady-slipper. The last time we had seen it was in a school-room in far-off Vancouver Island where in early April the children had brought it in, drooping in their hot little fists. This ...
— The New North • Agnes Deans Cameron

... astringent as a schoolgirl—of the old order—young May breathed austerely among the budding trees. Vallance buttoned his coat, lighted his last cigarette and took his seat upon a bench. For three minutes he mildly regretted the last hundred of his last thousand ...
— The Voice of the City • O. Henry

... between him and Johnnie, within fifty yards of both of them, mysterious and withdrawn as ever, busy at something or other. And it was naught to Johnnie! By the thought of all this the woe in him was strengthened and embittered. Nevertheless his youth, aided by the astringent quality of the clear dawn, still struggled sturdily against it. And he ate six times more breakfast than ...
— Clayhanger • Arnold Bennett

... we find no trace of sentimentalism. Their masculine mood both of body and mind left no room for it, and hence the bracing quality of their literature compared with that of recent times, its tonic property, that seems almost too astringent to palates relaxed by a daintier diet. The first great example of the degenerate modern tendency was Petrarch, who may be said to have given it impulse and direction. A more perfect specimen of the type has not since appeared. An intellectual voluptuary, ...
— Among My Books - First Series • James Russell Lowell

... frequently travel through the country in the exercise of their calling. They tan and dress leather with very great expedition, by steeping the hide first in a mixture of wood-ashes and water, until it parts with the hair; and afterwards by using the pounded leaves of a tree called goo, as an astringent. They are at great pains to render the hide as soft and pliant as possible, by rubbing it frequently between their hands, and beating it upon a stone. The hides of bullocks are converted chiefly into sandals, and therefore require less care in dressing than the skins of sheep and goats, ...
— Life and Travels of Mungo Park in Central Africa • Mungo Park

... last better than the summer fruit. And some, that, like the Winter-Nelis, have been hard and uninviting until all the rest have had their season, get their glow and perfume long after the frost and snow have done their worst with the orchards. Beware of rash criticisms; the rough and astringent fruit you condemn may be an autumn or a winter pear, and that which you picked up beneath the same bough in August may have been only its worm-eaten windfalls. Milton was a Saint-Germain with a graft of the roseate Early-Catherine. Rich, juicy, lively, fragrant, russet-skinned ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4, February, 1858 • Various

... the sole of the left shoe of a person of the same age, but opposite sex, to the patient, reduced to ashes is a cure for St. Anthony's fire. I have seen it applied with success, but suppose its efficacy is due to some astringent principle in the ashes. ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 201, September 3, 1853 • Various

... to it, and who eat too great a quantity: thus several of our people were attacked with diarrhoea in a few days after we began to make this fish our ordinary sustenance; but they found a remedy in the raspberries of the country which have an astringent property. ...
— Narrative of a Voyage to the Northwest Coast of America in the years 1811, 1812, 1813, and 1814 or the First American Settlement on the Pacific • Gabriel Franchere

... pecan is as superior to the wild seedling as is American gold to Mexico's money. These wild seedlings are small in size artificially colored a bright red and have a sharp, astringent taste and have a commercial value only because they are used to lower ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the Eleventh Annual Meeting - Washington, D. C. October 7 AND 8, 1920 • Various

... as to the apparatus and methods employed in early times. It seems fairly certain, however, that up to the 18th century these were of the most primitive kind. With regard to materials, we know that prior to the general introduction of the hop (see ALE) as a preservative and astringent, a number of other bitter and aromatic plants had been employed with this end in view. Thus J.L. Baker (The Brewing Industry) points out that the Cimbri used the Tamarix germanica, the Scandinavians ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 - "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" • Various

... the rain of all its idiosyncrasies. Why has he not lifted up his voice? He, the book clerk, that lives among countless volumes of confessions! Whose daily task is to wrestle hour by hour with a living Comedie Humaine! Has the constant spectacle of so many books been astringent in its effect upon any latent creative impulse? Or has he been dumb in the colloquial sense, forsooth; a figure like Mr. Whistler's guard in the British Museum? Sundry "lettered booksellers" of England have, indeed, given us some ...
— Walking-Stick Papers • Robert Cortes Holliday

... pliable natures, Lorison was, when thoroughly stirred, apt to become tempestuous. With a high and stubborn indignation upon him, be retraced his steps to the intersecting street by which he had come. Down this he hurried to the corner where he had parted with—an astringent grimace tinctured the thought—his wife. Thence still back he harked, following through an unfamiliar district his stimulated recollections of the way they had come from that preposterous wedding. Many times he went abroad, and nosed his way ...
— Whirligigs • O. Henry

... world does not know how the other half lives. Noticing a pot of areca nut toothpaste on a chemist's counter, I asked him what the peculiar properties of the areca nut were—in short, what was it good for. He replied that it was an astringent and acted beneficially on the gums, but he had never heard that it was used for any other purpose than the manufacture of an elegant dentifrice. I felt inclined to question him about the camel in order to see whether he would tell me that it was a tropical animal, chiefly noted ...
— Concerning Animals and Other Matters • E.H. Aitken, (AKA Edward Hamilton)

... (1) district, restrict, strictly, stringent, strain, restrain, constrain; (2) stricture, constriction, boa constrictor, astringent, ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor

... Book of Job, for example, the impotence of man and the omnipotence of God is the exclusive burden of its author's mind. "It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do?—deeper than hell; what canst thou know?" There is an astringent relish about the truth of this conviction which some men can feel, and which for them is as near an approach as can be made to the ...
— The Varieties of Religious Experience • William James

... tan, and the root by which the tan had been furnished, down to the last on which they had been moulded, and the artisan that had cast them off, a pair of finished shoes. There are few trees, and, of course, no bark to spare, in the island; but the islanders find a substitute in the astringent lobiferous root of the Tormentilla erecta, which they dig out for the purpose among the heath, at no inconsiderable expense of time and trouble. I was informed by John Stewart, an adept in all the multifarious arts of the island, from ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller

... devoted to it. Severe rubbing and rolling of the flesh between the fingers will gradually dissolve the fatty tissues. The flesh will then become soft and flabby, and the skin will be likely to fall into tiny lines unless an astringent wash, like weak alum water (used hot), is applied to tighten and harden it slightly, and so make the flesh firm. If the massage is continued, the flabby flesh will also be reduced, especially when the astringent ...
— The Woman Beautiful - or, The Art of Beauty Culture • Helen Follett Stevans

... variety of soils than the blackwalnut as well as being hardier than the black walnut or the hickory. It ripens so early that the nuts always have plenty of time to mature while the richly flavored kernels are rarely shrunken and never astringent. Despite these good qualities, a search through the publications of the Northern Nut Growers' Association for the past thirty years proves that comparatively little interest has been manifested in it. It would seem quite in order to inquire into the reasons for this neglect. Five of them come ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Thirty-Fourth Annual Report 1943 • Various

... whole house, like jessamine or mignionette, and are excellent for pies and tarts. The persimon is a fruit to which you are a stranger; it may be ranked with the plums, but has four stones, and is not fit to eat till bitten by the frost, when its austere and astringent taste disappears, and it becomes nearly transparent, and as rich and sweet as Guava jelly. The May-apple, or Mandrake, a wild fruit, is a favourite with our young folks; it grows on a single-steemed plant, usually one foot high, and is about ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 19. Issue 548 - 26 May 1832 • Various

... evil eye, in case the Obeah- bottle which hangs from the Mango-tree, charged with toad and spider, dirty water, and so forth, has no terrors for his secret enemy. He will have a Libidibi {314e} tree, too, for astringent medicine; and his hedge will be composed, if he be a man of taste— as he often seems to be—of Hibiscus bushes, whose magnificent crimson flowers contrast with the bright yellow bunches of the common Cassia, and the scarlet flowers of the Jumby-bead ...
— At Last • Charles Kingsley

... Sanguis Draconis, the 'Indian Cinnabaris' of Pliny, [Footnote: N.H. xxxiii. 38.] who holds it to be the sanies of the dragon mixed with the blood of the dying elephant. The same semi-mystical name is given to the sap by the Arab pharmists: in the Middle Ages this strong astringent resin was a sovereign cure for all complaints; now it is used chiefly for varnishes. The gum forms great gouts like blood where the bark is wounded or fissured: at first it is soft as that of the cherry, but it hardens by exposure to a dry red lump ...
— To the Gold Coast for Gold - A Personal Narrative in Two Volumes.—Vol. I • Richard F. Burton

... there are numerous instances of the use of d'd' (which he transliterates doudouiou) in the medical papyri. In the Ebers papyrus "doudou d'Elephantine broye" is prescribed as a remedy for external application in diseases of the heart, and as an astringent and emollient dressing for ulcers. He says the substance was brought to Elephantine from the interior of Africa ...
— The Evolution of the Dragon • G. Elliot Smith

... RIDOUT, Esq., Surgeon, Egham.—"As an astringent in severe Diarrhoea, and an anti-spasmodic in Colic, with Cramps in the Abdomen, the relief is instantaneous. As a sedative in Neuralgia and Tic-Doloreux its effects were very remarkable. In Uterine Affections I ...
— A Plain Cookery Book for the Working Classes • Charles Elme Francatelli



Words linked to "Astringent" :   medication, medicament, medicinal drug, alum, acerbic, styptic, stypsis, hemostatic, astringence, medicine, acerb, nonastringent, astringent drug, sour, astringency, astringe



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