def·e·cate

(dĕf′ĭ-kāt′)

v. def·e·cat·ed, def·e·cat·ing, def·e·cates

v.intr.

To void feces from the bowels.

v.tr.

1. To void (feces) from the bowels.

2. To remove impurities from (a liquid, such as fruit juice), especially in sugar refining.

[Latin dēfaecāre, to clean the dregs from : dē-, de- + faex, faec-, dregs.]

def′e·ca′tion n.

def′e·ca′tor n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

defecator - a person who defecates

voider

individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul - a human being; "there was too much for one person to do"

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References in periodicals archive

The caganer (the defecator) a traditional Catalan character, is the strangest gift to look out for and can be found in nativity scenes squatting with his trousers down at Barcelona's Christmas market.

Airport Parking and Hotels Compares Cost of Visiting European Christmas Markets

Faecal pellet group sampling has been used successfully by many researchers to gather information on the population size and biomass, the sex structure, habitat use of a species, diet composition and selectivity to predict the weight of the individual defecator, and to identify individual animals using DNA techniques for capture-mark-recapture studies (Putman 1984, Loft & Kie 1988, Edge & Marcum 1989, Hettinga 2010, Wam & Hjeljord 2010).

Use of faecal pellet size to differentiate age classes in female Svalbard reindeer Rangifer tarandus platyrhynchus

Dave likes to seek out the sublime to the ridiculous, such as the Yorkshire Post coverage of the "doorstep defecator" who had left an unwanted present on someone's front porch.

Words do come easy for Dave Spikey

The flimsy narrative is structured around a quest to reunite the hapless defecator with his erstwhile prom date, now the titular Miss March - the latest Playboy Bunny.

film

I stared at him and pompously said, "Don't you stand when you see a captain?" It was a cruel joke, but the expression on the would-be defecator's face was priceless.

Just don't call me 'Mrs'

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