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castor oil

noun

  1. a colorless to pale yellow, viscid liquid, usually obtained from the castor bean by a pressing process: used as a lubricant, in the manufacture of certain soaps and creams, and in medicine chiefly as a cathartic.


castor oil

noun

  1. a colourless or yellow glutinous oil obtained from the seeds of the castor-oil plant and used as a fine lubricant and as a cathartic
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Word History and Origins

Origin of castor oil1

1740–50; castor (perhaps variant spelling of caster ) + oil; perhaps so called because of its purgative effect
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Example Sentences

The list includes everything from common favorites like coconut oil and dead sea salt to earth wax and fermented castor oil.

Just prior to the contest, he chugs an entire bottle of castor oil and tops it off with an egg.

Carbolic Acid … liquid … oil … sweet oil … castor oil … aperient … Epsom Salts … white … white of egg.

Now, when castor-oil goes right, it is one thing; but when it goes wrong, it is another.

His general style is sincere; he means well; but his words, like cold-drawn castor oil, don't go down with overmuch gusto.

In some inland districts beans of the castor oil plant, which grows in great abundance, are a lucrative article of trade.

This is, if I recollect right, the castor-oil plant, and here are some of the castor-oil beans which Master Tommy has been eating.

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castoreumcastor-oil plant