costiveness

English

Etymology

From costive + -ness.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkɒstɪvnəs/

Noun

costiveness (uncountable)

  1. The state or quality of being costive; constipation.
    • January 1822, Richard Reece [editor] "Letters of a Royal Physician, on Indigestion &c. &c.", in The Monthly Gazette of Health Volume 7
      The new cases prove that in habitual costiveness or inactivity of the bowels, galvanism is a more valuable remedy, and that its effects are permanent .
  2. (obsolete) Inability to express oneself; stiffness.
    • 1792, Gilbert Wakefield, Memoirs of the Life of Gilbert Wakefield:
      a reverend disputant of the same coftiveness in public elocution with myself
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