[ad. late L. ēvacuātiōn-em, n. of action f. ēvacuā-re: see EVACUATE.] The action of evacuating; the condition of being evacuated.
1. spec. a. Med. The action or process of depleting (the body or any organ), or of clearing out (morbid matter, ‘humours,’ etc.), by medicine or other artificial means. rare in recent use.
Before the present century the word was most frequently used with reference to bleeding; for this we have a large number of quotations.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg. (MS. A.), 100. Ofte tymes he haþ … to myche evacuacioun of blood.
1533. Elyot, Cast. Helthe (1541), 53 a. To expell the says excrementes are ix sundry kyndes of evacuation … abstinence, vomyte, purgation by siege, letting of bloude [etc.].
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 1317. Evacuation or clensing the body by clistre.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. v. II. (1651), 398. Bleed on…. If the parties strength will not admit much evacuation in this kinde at once, it [bleeding] must be assayed again and again.
1651. Biggs, New Disp., 136. One manner of evacuation of evil humours, purgation.
1748. Smollett, Rod. Rand., xxxv. (1804), 229. I prepared for this important evacuation [of blood].
1790. W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (ed. 11), 217. The patient, exhausted by mere evacuations, sunk under the disease.
1805. W. Saunders, Min. Waters, 467. This method … seems to have a preference over actual evacuation by the lancet.
1836. Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 179/1. The evacuation of the contents of the rectum and bladder.
b. Phys. The process of discharging (waste matter, etc.) through the excretory organs (now esp. from the bowels); an instance of this process; a manner in which it takes place.
c. 1532. Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 1054. A body … may not grow by the vertue of such degestion without expulsion or evacuation.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turkes (1638), 176. After many euacuations, sitting down vpon an homely bed … [he] died.
1643. R. O., Man’s Mort., vii. 54. The evacuation of seed in carnall copulation.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. cvi. 15 Annot. 537/2. Nature with much violence seeks to discharge it selfe by the several evacuations.
1725. N. Robinson, Th. Physick, 73. This Evacuation [perspiration] is by far the greatest of any in the Body.
1727. Pope, &c. Art of Sinking, 75. Has had some poetical evacuation, and no question was much the better for it in his health.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. iii. 399. The causes of it are … violent and long-continued Passions, profuse Evacuations.
1784. Johnson, Lett., 18 March, in Boswell. The dropsy … has now run almost totally away by natural evacuation.
1851. J. Davies, Manual Mat. Med., 375. To promote alvine evacuations.
1852. Sir W. Hamilton, Discuss., 247. Under the terms, crudity, coction, and evacuation, were designated [according to the Humoral Pathology] the three principal periods of diseases.
c. concr. Evacuated or excreted matter.
1625. Hart, Anat. Ur., II. viii. 100. Other euacuations, both vpwards and downewards, came in greater abundance then was wished.
1759. Sterne, Tr. Shandy (1802), I. xxiii. 119. Others … will draw a man’s character … merely from his evacuations.
1846. G. E. Day, trans. Simon’s Anim. Chem., II. 384. Sometimes we find, in the deposit from these evacuations, small white or yellow masses.
2. gen. The action of emptying (a receptacle), or of removing (the contents of anything) so as to produce a vacancy; the depletion (of a treasury, one’s resources, etc.). Sometimes with transf. notion of 1 a. Also fig.
1598. Barckley, Felic. Man (1631), 400. They [Lawyers and Physicions] have one common end, that is gaine, and the manner of both their proceedings in their faculties, is by evacuation.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., IV. (1662), 107 (J.). Poperie … hath not been able to re-establish it self in any place, after provision made against it by utter evacuation of all Romish Ceremonies.
1640. J. Dyke, Worthy Commun., Ep. to Rdr. The continuall effluences of vertue out of Him … is not the least evacuation at all unto Him.
1697. Potter, Antiq. Greece, II. xix. (1715), 360 (T.). Their Treasury … exhausted by so frequent Evacuations.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist., I. 52. It is pretty evident that their [grottoes’] evacuation has been owing to waters.
1806. Vince, Hydrostat., vii. 79. The evacuation made by so swift a current.
1840. Macaulay, Clive, 30. Not content with these ways of getting rid of his money, [he] resorted to the most speedy and effectual of all modes of evacuation, a contested election.
1869. Phillips, Vesuv., iii. 48. After the extraordinary evacuation of the large crateral space.
1877. trans. Ziemssen’s Cycl. Med., XII. Index s.v.
† b. The quantity removed by ‘evacuation.’ Obs.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., I. iv. App. 136. The evacuations [sc. of air] and the remainders do both of them decrease in the same geometrical progression.
† c. A clearing out, depleting (of population, etc.). Obs.
1669–94. Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 201. And if that evacuation [of population] be grown to an excess.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. x. 238. Let us also consider the vast Evacuations of Men that England hath had by Forein Assistances lent to Forein Kingdoms.
1755. Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. (1861), III. 362. There will be a great evacuation at Bath of fine folks.
3. Mil. † a. The clearing (a place) of troops (obs.). b. The withdrawal (by an army or commander) from occupation of a country, fortress, town, etc. c. The removal (of a garrison, the population of a place, etc.).
1710. Lond. Gaz., No. 4666/1. The Deputies … have insisted … on the Evacuation of the Kingdom of all Foreign Troops.
1783. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 221. New York … the final evacuation of that city.
1796. Burke, Corr., IV. 354. An evacuation of the Mediterranean, as a preliminary to a war with Spain.
1839. Thirlwall, Greece, IV. 125. They offered no concession beyond the evacuation of Decelea and the Attic territory.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. xvii. 378. A declaration … which made the further continuance of peace dependent upon the evacuation of the Principalities.
1880. McCarthy, Own Times, III. xxxiv. 92. The time for the evacuation of the garrison came.
attrib. 1880. Webster (Suppl.), Evacuation day, the anniversary of the day on which the British army evacuated the city of New York, November 25, 1783.
4. The action of making void and of no effect; cancelling, nullification. Cf. EVACUATE v. 4.
1650. Vind. Hammond’s Addr., § 66. The suspension of the latter, farre from including the evacuation, or cancelling of the former.
1691. Beverley, Thous. Years Kingd. Christ, 21. The putting Them quite under his Feet, by that perfect distinguishing Catargesis, or Evacuation of All Power, Motion, or Action.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 31, ¶ 10. Sophisms tending to the confusion of all principles, and the evacuation of all duties.
