Edit page | Page history | Printable version

Absorptive --> absorbent

1. Anything which absorbs. The ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat. (Darwin)

2. (Science: medicine) Any substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid in the stomach and bowels, as magnesia, chalk, etc.; also a substance e. G, iodine) which acts on the absorbent vessels so as to reduce enlarged and indurated parts.

3. (Science: physiology) The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants.