Drawing together the tissues; binding; contracting; -- opposed to laxative; as, astringent medicines; a butter and astringent taste; astringent fruit.
Stern; austere; as, an astringent type of virtue.
A medicine or other substance that produces contraction in the soft organic textures, and checks discharges of blood, mucus, etc. External astringents are called styptics. Dunglison.
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