physicke

Noun

physic (countable and uncountable, plural physics)

1. (archaic, countable) A medicine or drug, especially a cathartic or purgative.
   • Harke yee Lords, you ſee I haue giuen her Phiſicke, / And you muſt needs beſtovv her Funerall, […]c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas...
2. (archaic, uncountable) The art or profession of healing disease; medicine.
   • ...and thus draw out all the unwholesome Air and Stench, which does more harm than any Physick can repair.1743, Stephen Hales, A Description of Ventilators, page xiii
3. (archaic, uncountable) Natural philosophy; physics.
   • When I left Mr. Bates, I went down to my Father; where, by the Aſſiſtance of him and my Uncle John, and ſome other Relations, I got forty Pounds, and a Promiſe of thirty Pounds a year to maintain me at Leyden: there I ſtudied Phyſick two years and ſeven months, knowing it would be uſeful in long...1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “The Author Gives Some Account of Himself and Family, His First Inducements to Travel. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s...
4. (obsolete) A physician.
   • Desire is death, which physic did except.1609, William Shakespeare, “Sonnet 147”, in Shake-speares Sonnets. […], London: By G[eorge] Eld for T[homas] T[horpe] and are to be sold by William Aspley, →OCLC

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