Atrabiliary

/ˌæt.ɹəˈbɪl.i.əɹ.i/ · adjective

Meaning

(medicine, obsolete) Of or relating to black bile..

Definitions by Sense

1. (medicine, obsolete) Of or relating to black bile.
2. Melancholic or hypochondriac; atrabilious.

Example Sentences

A Cancer again is known by its renitency of touch, if it be mild it carries a black or livid colour outwards, so made by the peccant humour or atrabiliary juice; there's no heat felt on the touch, but rather a coldness in the part; […]

[…] 'Tis true, when once a Schirrus is formed in a glandular Part, no one can tell how it may terminate; becauſe various changes may ariſe from various Cauſes in the Conſtitution of the Perſon; and if the Juices ſhould degenerate into a highly acrid, or what the Ancients termed an atrabiliary State, the Schirrus will be (cæteris paribus) more liable to become a Cancer.

Urine of a green Colour with a thick Sediment, denotes, 1. an atrabiliary Habit; 2. that the atrabiliary Matter now begins to be diſſolved and diſcharged, and that therefore, 3. there muſt be Anxieties about the Præcordia, a Diſturbance in the Bowels, with iliacal ancolicky Pains, &c.

Becauſe by theſe the blood is thinned, and the atrabiliary matter reſolved. But as the diſeaſe is of the chronic kind, theſe means muſt be continued a long time. […] We have hitherto conſidered the atrabiliary matter as equally diſperſed throughout the circulating humours; but if its quantity be increaſed, it may ſtick in divers parts of the body, and produce the worſt kinds of obſtructions.

The four sorts of humours performed in the human body (microcosm) a part as important as the four elements did in the whole universe (macrocosm.) The bile, the blood, the pituitary and atrabiliary fluids determined, by their predominance the different temperaments, and produced the different diseases. The atrabiliary humour was, as is well known, thought to be the cause of melancholy and mania; […]

The cold meningitis is due either to the lymphatic or the atrabiliary humors. […] There are two kinds of hot meningitis: One, atrabiliary; the other, atrabiliary mixed with a blood component.

ATRABIL′IARY, ATRABIL′IOUS, a. Melancholic, or hypochondriacal; from the supposed preponderance of black bile. – atrabiliary capsules, the renal or supra-renal glands or capsules.

[…] that chronic dissatisfaction at the imperfections of ordinary mortality and that yearning after the impossible incarnation of some superhuman ideal, which are characteristic of the typical "reformer," especially in his more atrabiliary moments.

Synonyms for atrabiliary

Antonyms for atrabiliary

Related Words

Word Forms

• more atrabiliary
• most atrabiliary

Usage Notes

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