Definition of "patent medicine" []

• A medicine that is protected by a patent. (noun)
• Any medicine with a proprietary formula which can be bought without a prescription, irrespective of whether it is protected by a patent. (noun)

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• "Well, the patent medicine Sage provided through Miss O’Callaghan — ‘Fulvitavolts,’ he calls it — has an infinitestimal amount of hyoscine."
• "It may be a bit flyblown but there it is along with every other patent medicine the world has ever known."
• "Whether because church-going people are more trusting, and therefore more easily befooled than others, or from some more obscure reason, many of the religious papers fairly reek with patent medicine fakes."