a. and sb. [f. L. ērādīcāt- (see ERADICATE v.) + -IVE.]
A. adj. Tending or having the power to root out or expel (disease, etc.). Const. of.
† Eradicative cure: orig. the ‘curative’ treatment of disease, as opposed to palliative. In later use the phrase occurs with cure taken in the mod. sense.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., 43 b. We wyll speake of his cure aswel eradicatyue as palliatyue.
1684. trans. Bonet’s Merc. Compit., VI. 217/2. A certain Sweat … had been plainly critical and eradicative of the whole Disease.
a. 1691. Boyle, Wks. (1772), V. 587 (R.). Copious evacuations … eradicative of the morbific matter.
1711. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1718), 143. To effect a compleat and Eradicative Cure of this Distemper.
1828. in Webster; and in mod. Dicts.
† B. sb. An eradicative medicine.
1654. R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 88. Sometimes Eradicatives are omitted in the beginning.
1731–1800. in Bailey.
1828. in Webster.
1847. in Craig; and in mod. Dicts.
