noun
definition
Any medication designed to cause irritation
definition
A source of irritation.
adjective
definition
Causing irritation or inflammation.
definition
Rendering null and void; conditionally invalidating.
Examples of irritant in a Sentence
The salt is a corrosive irritant poison when taken internally.
When salicin is taken internally no irritant action occurs, nor is there any antisepsis.
It possesses the advantage of exercising but little irritant effect upon the bowels.
The permanganate of potash is an irritant if used pure.
Colchicum or colchicine, when applied to the skin, acts as a powerful irritant, causing local pain and congestion.
Salicylic acid is a powerful irritant when inhaled or swallowed in a concentrated form, and even when much diluted it causes pain, nausea and vomiting.
The term counterirritant is used when an irritant is applied to the skin for the purpose of relieving pain or congestion by dilating the superficial vessels.
Though ammonium chloride has certain irritant properties which may disorder the stomach, yet if its mucous membrane be depressed and atonic the drug may improve its condition, and it has been used with success in gastric and intestinal catarrhs of a subacute type and is given in doses of io grains half an hour before meals in painful dyspepsia due to hyperacidity.
For inflammation of the mouth a similar combination is used as a mouth wash, in the throat as a gargle, and in the nose as a wash and sometimes as an ointment or spray, the ointment possessing the advantage of protecting the delicate nasal mucous membrane from irritation by stopping the entrance of irritant dust into the nasal cavities.
It acts as a rubefacient, an irritant and a counter-irritant.
In larger doses colchicum or colchicine acts as a most violent gastrointestinal irritant, causing terrible pain, colic,vomiting, diarrhoea, haemorrhage from the bowel, thirst and ultimately death from collapse.
By preventing fermentation in the intestine these also tend to prevent or check diarrhoea, and they may do good after the irritant has been removed by castor oil.
Quinine does not affect the unbroken skin, and cannot be absorbed from it, but it is slightly irritant to the pain-conducting nerves of a raw surface.
Given in toxic doses or in strong solution, sulphuric acid is a severe gastro-intestinal irritant, causing intense burning pain, extending from the mouth to the stomach, and vomiting of mucous and coffee-coloured material.
Acid preparations are more likely to do this, and the acid set free after the formation of the chloride may act as an irritant.
It must not be used to check haemorrhage from the kidneys (haematuria) owing to its irritant action on those organs, but in haemoptysis (haemorrhage from the lungs) it is often an invaluable remedy.
On a mucous membrane or a delicate skin it exerts an irritant action, which occurs more quickly than on a thickened epidermis, such as the scalp, and according to the strength and period of application there may result redness, a blister, or an ulcer.
Members of the genus allium have often been reported to have irritant and allergenic properties on skin contact.
Strategically, the existence of an Iraq which is not beholden to America is an irritant which cannot be allowed to long continue.
The most frequent adverse effect is an irritant contact dermatitis.
An irritant dermatitis is most likely to occur on the hands.
In the end, sexual exploitation was a minor irritant in this story.
Leaves can be skin irritant and or make skin hypersensitive to sunlight.
This condition can be prevented through avoiding the irritant.
When taken internally it is both a secretory and an excretory cholagogue, but so irritant and powerful that its use in cases of jaundice is generally undesirable.
If it be absorbed from a surgical dressing there are no irritant symptoms, but when the acid is swallowed in concentrated form, symptoms of gastro-intestinal irritation occur.
If it be rubbed in or evaporation be prevented, it acts, like alcohol and chloroform, as an irritant.
The irritant may be chemical, as is seen in the skin cancers that develop in workers in paraffin, petroleum, arsenic and aniline.
In the same way itching is often caused by the presence of insects or other irritants upon the skin, and it tends reflexly to cause rubbing, which is useful by removing the irritant.
After the irritant has been removed and fermentation stopped, the irritation still remaining in the intestinal wall may be soothed by chalk mixture and bismuth, to which if necessary small quantities of opium may be added.
Summed up, its action is that of an irritant, and a cardiac and nervous depressant.
In some abdominal conditions, for instance, opium is still preferred by the majority of practitioners, though certainly not in gastric cases, where morphine gives the relief for which opium often increases the need, owing to the irritant action of some of its constituents.
The hypophosphites have been recommended in pulmonary affections, being said to act as free phosphorus without being irritant, and the glycero-phosphates are certainly useful to stimulate metabolism.
For external use, sulphuric acid is a powerful irritant and caustic, acting by its powerful affinity for water and therefore dehydrating the tissues and causing them to turn black.
Their soluble salts combine with albumen and preserve it, strong solutions being extremely irritant or caustic, while weaker ones are astringent simply, or even soothing.
Vampires heal very quickly, but any foreign object had to be removed or it would be a constant irritant.
Margaret Thatcher was still a minor irritant whose influence was limited to stealing milk from school children.
What is classed as a severe eye irritant by one observer may be dismissed as a mild irritant by another.
Then he admitted the failure to translate promising field positions into points was a constant irritant to his team.
The dried bark from this species has been applied as a counter irritant (Morton 1977 ).
Lung toxins Some of the toxins present in smoke are highly irritant or directly toxic to the bronchial mucosa causing airway inflammation.
The oil from the bark smells like the spice and is a very strong skin irritant and should never be used on the skin.
Ozone is a lung irritant emitted from many air cleaners in the market that can trigger allergy reactions, even in small amounts.
Warfarin is not known to be an eye irritant.
Acute irritant symptoms from the inhalation of ETS are common, the most frequent being eye irritation.
Bubble baths and soaps should be avoided as they remove the natural lipids from the surface of the skin and can be an irritant.
Virus such as distemper or parvo, irritant poisons, food poisoning or dietary allergies are the most common causes of diarrhea.
The report focuses on nitrogen trichloride as being the cause of the irritant to the lungs.
In theory, this may help to reduce irritant contact dermatitis from repeated hand washing.
Many points in the development and mechanism of the nematocyst are disputed, but it is tolerably certain (I) that the cnidocil is of sensory nature, and that stimulation, by contact with prey or in other ways, causes a reflex discharge of the nematocyst; (2) that the discharge is an explosive change whereby the in-turned thread is suddenly everted and turned inside out, being thus shot through the opening in the outer wall of the capsule, and forced violently into the tissues of the prey, or, it may be, of an enemy; (3) that the thread inflicts not merely a mechanical wound, but instils an irritant poison, numbing and paralysing in its action.