v. Also 6–7 evacuat. Pa. pple. 6–7 evacuat(e. [f. L. ēvacuāt- ppl. stem of ēvacuā-re (Pliny), f. ē out + vacuus empty. Cf. Fr. évacuer.
In class. L. ēvacuāre is found only in Pliny, with the sense ‘to empty (the bowels).’ The Vulgate and later law-books have the fig. sense ‘to make void, nullify,’ which is rather to be regarded as parallel with the older sense than as developed from it, being based on the fig, sense of vacuus ‘void, null, of no validity.’ The sense represented in branch II, where the obj. is the contents instead of the vessel or receptacle, is a development similar to that in to empty, Fr. vider; it occurs in med.L. in medical use (evacuare humores, etc.), and hence in Fr. évacuer.]
I. To make empty.
* To remove the contents of.
1. trans. To empty, clear out the contents of (a vessel or receptacle). Chiefly in uses more or less technical: To empty (the stomach, bowels, or other bodily organ); to deplete (the body) by purging or vomiting (formerly also by bleeding, sudorifics, etc.); to exhaust (of air).
1542. Boorde, Dyetary, viii. 248. After you haue euacuated your body, and trussed your poyntes, kayme your heade oft.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXII. ix. 443. The broth of these fishes hath the name to evacuat both the bellie and the bladder.
1644. Hammond, Loyal Convert, 13. Physicians evacuate the Body, sometimes by Vomit, sometimes by Purge.
a. 1652. Brome, City Wit, III. ii. (1653), D j. I will prefer thee to … make my Bed;… and evacuate my Chamberpot.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., To Rdr. (1682), 5. Evacuate such Receivers till there be no air left in them.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 99, ¶ 3. Had detached all his Subjects and evacuated all his Stores.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. ii. 215. The Contraction of the Lacrymal Glands, whereby they are evacuated.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., viii. (ed. 2), 305. In all cases of poisoning, the first step is to give the antidote … and then evacuate the stomach.
1883. Standard, 31 Jan., 5/4. It is possible … to evacuate them by cutting trenches through which the black ooze drains.
b. absol. (In quot. † to let blood.)
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. v. II. If the malady continue, it is not amiss to evacuate in a part in the fore-head.
c. fig. in various senses. Const. of. In recent use esp. To deprive (a term, concept, etc.) of its contents or value. Cf. 4.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., IV. x. (1611), 147. By euacuating cleane, and emptying the Church of euerie such rite and Ceremonie.
a. 1653. S. Ward, in Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. xiii. 5. Hath it [faith] not sovereign virtue in it, to … evacuate the mind of all ill thoughts and passions.
a. 1734. North, Lives (1826), I. 8–9. I hope to evacuate my mind of every matter and thing I know and can remember materially concerning his lordship.
1825. Coleridge, Aids Refl. (1836), 150. They … evacuate the term [spirit] of all its proper meaning.
1836–7. Sir W. Hamilton, Metaph., xxxix. (1870), II. 384. Brown … evacuates the phænomenon of all that desiderates explanation.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), III. xxii. 15. They sank into exhaustion, evacuated of all life and energy.
1869. A. W. Haddan, Apost. Succ., i. (1879), 15. To evacuate the sacraments of grace, and to regard them as merely acted prayers.
† d. refl. and intr. for refl. Of a body of water, etc.: To empty, discharge itself. Also fig. Obs.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 311. At the further end of the lake, they found that it evacuated itself into a large river.
1762. Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. iii. 23. Such griefs evacuate themselves best by that particular channel.
1816. Keatinge, Trav. (1817), II. App. 265. Where the canal evacuates is placed a net to catch what would pass off and be lost.
† 2. To clear (a place) of inmates, etc., (a country) of inhabitants, troops, wild beasts. Const. of.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 136. That the whole Countrey might be evacuated and quite cleared from Wolves.
1687. in Magd. Coll. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), 81. To evacuate a whole College will be … scandalous.
1704. Addr. Norfolk, in Lond. Gaz., No. 4068/2. A Great Monarch … evacuates whole Countries. Ibid. (1708), No. 4462/2. Evacuating the Kingdom of all Foreign Troops.
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 171, ¶ 14. In France they annually evacuate their streets, and ship their prostitutes and vagabonds to their colonies.
1753. Smollett, Ct. Fathom (1784), 34/1. Her room was no sooner evacuated of such troublesome visitants, than [etc.].
3. Of an army: To relinquish the occupation of (a country, fortress, town, position). Said also of the general in command, or of the authority that orders the withdrawal.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 76, ¶ 5. The Army … had began to repass the Mountains, and would shortly evacuate Savoy.
1714. Swift, Publick Spirit of Whigs, 39 (J.). The Emperor … never effectually evacuated Catalonia.
1792. Anecd. W. Pitt, III. xxxix. 35. The French forces who had invaded and seized Turks Island must immediately evacuate the same.
1840. Macaulay, Clive, 21. The garrison, in a panic, evacuated the fort.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea, I. xxv. 433. She [Austria] summoned the Emperor Nicholas to evacuate the Principalities.
1887. Spectator, 28 May, 722/1. Egypt is to be evacuated within three years.
absol. 1881. Dillon, in Times, 5 Jan., 10/1. As soon as the army evacuates he can go back to his own home.
b. gen. To quit, withdraw from (a place or apartment). Also absol.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 271. The burgomasters were not slow in evacuating the premises.
1830. Galt, Lawrie T., VII. viii. (1849), 337. The other guests had evacuated the apartment.
1849. C. Brontë, Shirley, xv. 226. Request your friend Mr. Donne to evacuate.
1877. Farrar, My Youth, xxx. 303. I will evacuate it whenever you like.
** To make void or worthless.
† 4. To make void, annul, deprive of force or validity. Chiefly in religious and legal phraseology. (The earliest recorded sense in Eng.) Obs.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 5. Ceremonyes … whiche all were euacuate and made voyde by the passyon of our sauyour Jesu Chryst.
1548. Latimer, Ploughers (Arb.), 32. Thys is the marke at the whyche the Deuyll shooteth, to evacuate the crosse of Chryste.
1563. Davidson, Answ. Kennedy, in Wodr. Soc. Misc., 257. To have evacuat the Reasonis of ȝour Buik.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., 81. Which defect … would not euacuate a Marriage, after Cohabitation, and Actuall Consummation.
a. 1626. Bp. Andrewes, Serm. (1856), I. 83. We evacuate the gift … if we vouchsafe not to accept of it.
1638. Chillingw., Relig. Prot., I. iv. § 45. 213. Words, which evacuate your objection.
1709. Strype, Ann. Ref., I. ii. 62. Of which Lands they had been thrown out in Queen Mary’s Reign, and their Patents from King Edward evacuated.
1785. Paley, Mor. Philos. (1818), I. 141. A latitude, which might evacuate the force of almost all promises.
II. To empty out (the contents of anything).
† 5. Of the action of a medicine, vomiting, etc. (rarely of a personal agent by means of medicine): To clear out, get rid of, remove (a disease or humour). Also fig. Obs. Cf. 1.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe, III. vii. Vnctions with oyles and oyntementes … do shortely euacuate the fulnesse.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXV. v. 217. The white [Ellebore purgeth] by vomit upward, and doth evacuat the offensive humours which cause diseases.
1671. Salmon, Syn. Med., II. xlvi. 314. A perfect Crisis is that which evacuates all the vitious Matter.
1715. I. Petiver, in Phil. Trans., XXIX. 230. The Seed of this Plant evacuates yellow Choler.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), IX. xii. 341 (T.). Fasting and humiliation is a sovereign remedy to evacuate all spiritual distempers.
1779. Johnson, L. P., Pope, Wks. IV. 85. Thomson declared his [Pope’s] distemper to be a dropsy, and evacuated part of the water by tincture of jalap.
1790. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (ed. 11), 553. The principal intention of the cure of a looseness is to evacuate the offending matter.
6. To void, discharge (excrements, etc.) through ‘any of the excretory passages’ (J.); in mod. use only through the bowels or mouth.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts (1658), 322. That part … will grow unto a head and break, evacuating great abundance of filthy matter.
1664. Power, Exp. Philos., I. 37. That round hole near her [Black Snail’s] neck … out of which I have observed some salivous Matter to be evacuated.
1766. Alexander, in Phil. Trans., LVII. 68. I started up … made some efforts to vomit, but evacuated nothing.
1800. Med. Jrnl., IV. 386. About four pints of urine had been evacuated.
1865. Baring-Gould, Were-wolves, x. 173. He evacuated such floods of water that the mountain torrents were full.
absol. 1634. J. Levett, Ordering of Bees, 59. They haue no Intraylls or other inward Organs, by which either to retaine or evacuat.
1666. G. Harvey, Morb. Angl., xxxiii. 211. A man that doth feed upon one dish at a Meal, shall nothing near evacuate … so quick or readily as one that dines upon two or more.
1705. Oliver, in Phil. Trans., XXV. 2178. But no body ever saw him Eat or Evacuate.
b. In wider sense (partly transf. from the above): To discharge, throw off, vent. Also fig.
1622. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 146. Their houses are made … with a laver in the toppe to evacuate the smoake when they make fire.
1662. Gerbier, Princ., 20. The Lime having evacuated its putrefaction.
1816. in J. Scott, Vis. Paris (ed. 4), 19. When a Margate hoy evacuates her cargo, the crowd on the pier is usually considerable.
1841. Fraser’s Mag., XXIII. 511. Judging from sentiments which he has evacuated in some of his public spoutifications.
† 7. To take out mechanically, leaving a vacuum or void; to pump out (water); to exhaust (air). Also fig. Obs. exc. in surgical use.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (ed. 3), II. 5. Any one would have thought that the native Propensity to rambling … should be worn out, the volatile Part be fully evacuated.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), I. xiii. 115. The contents of his skull must have been evacuated.
1767. Gooch, Treat. Wounds, I. 295. As much of the brain was evacuated, as wou’d fill a hen’s eggshell.
1772. Hutton, Bridges, 82. The water will ooze up … in too great abundance to be evacuated by the engines.
1781. Cowper, Lett., 5 March. As much of the mould as can be taken out without disturbing the roots must be evacuated and its place supplied with fresh.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., I. iv. 137. The ascent of the quicksilver … is proportional to the quantity evacuated by each turn.
1797. M. Baillie, Morb. Anat. (1807), 112. If … the pus be evacuated externally, there will be a scar in the neck.
1877. trans. Ziemssen’s Cycl. Med., XII. 704. The contents of abscesses have been evacuated in the following directions.
b. intr. for refl.
1643. R. O., Man’s Mort., iii. 13. A Vessell … so sollid every where, that the Aire could not possibly evacuate.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 261. The Sap … turns aside and evacuates by this Aperture.
8. To clear out, remove (inhabitants, inmates or troops). † Also intr. for refl. Cf. 2.
a. 1639. Wotton, in Gutch, Coll. Cur., I. 220. Action had pretty well evacuated the idle people, which are the stock of rapine.
1669. Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 233. The people that evacuate from us to Barbadoes.
1691. Beverley, Thous. Years Kingd. Christ, 23. Nor can he cease to Reign, till They [his enemies] are so Evacuated.
1698. Ludlow, Mem. (1721), I. 179. The Garrison would be entirely evacuated before they could signify their Pleasure to the Army.
1872. Daily News, 3 May, 5/6. The wounded used to be stowed in it [the refreshment room at Meaux] till the time came conveniently to evacuate them. Ibid. (1884), 5 March, 5/7. He was evacuating the garrison and Egyptian inhabitants of that place [Tokar].
