Definition of "physical"

Of medicine.

1. (obsolete) Pertaining to the field of medicine; medical.

2. (obsolete) That practises medicine; pertaining to doctors, physicianly.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Her father was thrown from his horse, when his blood was in a very inflammatory state, and the bruises were very dangerous; his recovery was not expected by the physical tribe.

     1788, Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary: A Fiction‎

3. (obsolete) Medicinal; good for the health, curative, therapeutic.  quotations

   Quotations

   • Phisicall [translating φαρμακώδεις (pharmakṓdeis)] herbes, as Helleborum, Lingewort, or Beares foote.

     1579, Thomas North, translating Pliny, Parallel Lives

   • Is Brutus sick? and is it physical / To walk unbraced, and suck up the humours / Of the dank morning?

     1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene ii]

Of matter and nature.

1. Pertaining to the world as understood through the senses rather than the mind; tangible, concrete; real. Having to do with the material world.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Labour, then, in the physical world, is […] employed in putting objects in motion.

     1848, John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy: With Some of Their Applications to Social Philosophy. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]

   • In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result.

     2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist‎, volume 407, number 8837, page 74

2. In accordance with the laws of nature; now specifically, pertaining to physics.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains.

     2012 January, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 30 April 2013, page 86

3. Denoting a map showing natural features of the landscape (compare political).  examples

Of the human body.

1. Having to do with the body as opposed to the mind; corporeal, bodily.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • A society sunk in ignorance, and ruled by mere physical force.

     1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 1, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans

2. Sexual, carnal.  examples

3. Involving bodily force or contact; vigorous, aggressive.  examples

Physical examination.  examples

(parapsychology) A physical manifestation of psychic origin, as through ectoplasmic solidification.  quotations