a. & sb. Med. [as if ad. Gr. ἐκβολικός, f. ἐκβολή expulsion.]
A. adj. That promotes the expulsion of the fœtus.
1877. Woodman & Tidy, Forensic Med., 756. The ecbolic properties of ergot are too well known.
B. sb. A drug that possesses this property.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., Ecbolics … a term used to express such medicines as were given to promote delivery in child-birth.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 549. Cases must be rare in which the latter [obstetric instruments] are not preferable to the ecbolic.
