Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A dose of physic for a horse.
  • noun A horn or other instrument by which medicine is administered to a horse.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A dose of physic for a horse.
  • noun The appliance by which the dose is administered.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A dose of medicine for a horse.
  • noun The appliance by which the dose is administered.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Galen is but empiricutic, and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench.

    The Tragedy of Coriolanus 2004

  • It gives me an estate of seven years’ health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician: the most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic, and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench.

    Act II. Scene I. Coriolanus 1914

  • He has no respect for the old authoritative prescriptions, if they fail in practice, whether they come in Galen's name, or another's; but he is just as severe upon 'the empiricutics,' on the other hand, and he objects to 'a horse-drench 'for the human constitution in the greater congregation, as much as he does in that distinctively complex delicate structure which the single individual human frame in itself constitutes.

    The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded Delia Bacon 1835

  • _Galen_ is but empiricutic, and to _this_ preservative of no better report than a horse-drench. '

    The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded Delia Bacon 1835

  • Galen is but empiricutic, and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench.

    Coriolanus 1607

Comments

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  • From the examples:

    "It gives me an estate of seven years’ health; in which time I will make a lip at the physician: the most sovereign prescription in Galen is but empiricutic, and, to this preservative, of no better report than a horse-drench."

    Act II. Scene I. Coriolanus

    March 20, 2014