Constipant

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person experiencing difficulty or infrequency in passing stools; an individual suffering from constipation; one affected by slow or obstructed bowel movements
2. Someone who has impaired bowel function resulting in hard or infrequent feces; an individual with a condition causing difficulty in defecation; a person struggling with intestinal sluggishness
3. An individual whose digestive system slows passage of waste causing discomfort; a person with reduced bowel activity leading to constipation; one experiencing blocked or rare bowel movements

Etymology: The root is the Latin verb "constipare," built from "com-," meaning "together," and "stipare," meaning "to press or pack tightly." The image is literal: to constipate something is to cram it together until it cannot move. Medicine borrowed that sense of compression for the bowels, so a body packed too tightly with its own contents becomes the source of the trouble. The noun comes from the present participle of that Latin verb, "constipans," which means "pressing together." English turned the participle into a naming word, so the term describes whoever or whatever is in the condition of being packed shut. In your sense, a sick person whose bowels are blocked is the one who has been compressed in this way.

Synonyms: laxative, stool softener, bowel regulator

Antonyms: constipating agent, constipator