What does poulticed mean?
Poulticed is the past tense and past participle of poultice, a verb meaning to apply a soft medicinal preparation to part of the body. A poultice is commonly a warm or moist cloth, poultice, or mash bearing substances such as herbs, oats, or plant extracts. Such preparations have traditionally been used to soothe painful or inflamed joints, reduce swelling, or protect an injured area. In modern language, poulticed often suggests traditional or herbal medicine rather than formal clinical treatment. The word can function transitively, as in “she poulticed the wound,” or as a participial adjective, as in “the poulticed arm.” Although poultice remains the familiar noun and verb, the inflected form poulticed is relatively uncommon and chiefly appears in descriptions of care or historical remedies.
verbApplied a poultice to a body part, typically to soothe inflammation, reduce swelling, or treat a minor ailment.
- Applied a poultice to a body part in order to soothe or treat it.
- Used as a participial adjective to describe a body part that has been treated with a poultice.
"The herbalist poulticed the inflamed joint with a warm cloth soaked in calendula."
"The herbalist poulticed the swollen ankle before the match."
"His poulticed fingers were wrapped in clean bandages."
Long before antibiotics, a poultice was one of medicine's familiar tools for soothing swelling and easing pain.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does poulticed come from?
Poulticed derives from the English verb poultice. That word entered Middle English from Old French pultice, which was borrowed from Latin pulte, meaning a poultice or soft mass. The modern English verb developed alongside the older use of the same word as a noun for the medicinal preparation applied to the body.
Related word forms
How poulticed is actually used
Poulticed is chiefly used as the past tense or past participle of poultice. It is now most likely to appear in historical or traditional-medicine contexts; the simpler form poultice is much more common in everyday use.
Easily confused with poulticed
Poultice is the noun for the medicinal substance applied to the body, while poulticed is the past tense and past participle of the verb poultice.