A laxative is something you take when waste will not leave the body easily — usually a medicine, sometimes a food — that helps you poo. Doctors use it when someone has been blocked for days: the belly feels full and hard, and nothing will come. Some laxatives put more water into the waste so it is softer; some make the bowel push more. You can also use it as an adjective: a laxative effect, meaning it may send you to the toilet. Though actually, people say this lightly about fruit or coffee, and that is not the same as real medicine. It is a doctor's word, a little stiff, not a rude word — but you still would not shout it at the table. It is not about feeling calm, even though the old Latin idea was “loosening.”