constipate

The adjective is first attested circa 1425, in Middle English, the verb in 1541; inherited from Middle English constipat(e) (“constipated”), borrowed Medieval Latin cōnstīpātus (“constipated”) (or through its Old French equivalent constipé), perfect passive participle of Medieval Latin cōnstīpō (“to cause constipation, to constipate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from Classical Latin cōnstīpō (“to crowd or press tightly together”) (whence obsoleted sense 2 and 3), itself from con- +‎ stīpō (“to press, cram”). Cognate with Middle English constipen (“to constipate”) and doublet of costive; related to stiff.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnstɪˌpeɪt/

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constipate (third-person singular simple present constipates, present participle constipating, simple past and past participle constipated)

1. (ambitransitive) To cause constipation in, render costive.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

2. (obsolete, medicine) To constrict, contract (tissues, the body, fibres, etc.); to make firm and compact by pressing together.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

3. (obsolete) To pack or crowd together.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)

constipate (comparative more constipate, superlative most constipate) (obsolete)

1. Constipated, costive.
   • 1697, Robert Peirce, Bath Memoirs, or Observations in three-and-forty years, II. i. 255:

     By […] much Sweating, the Bowels were heated, and dry'd, and rendred Constipate.

• copatients, spectation

cōnstīpāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of cōnstīpō

constipate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of constipar combined with te