Adjective

(en adjective)

Having to do with the body.

Having to do with the material world.

* John Stuart Mill

Labour, in the physical world, is employed in putting objects in motion.

* Macaulay

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

* {{quote-magazine, title=No hiding place

, date=2013-05-25, volume=407, issue=8837, page=74, magazine=(The Economist) citation , passage=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.}}

Involving bodily force.

Having to do with physics.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01, author=Michael Riordan, title=Tackling Infinity

, volume=100, issue=1, page=86, magazine=(American Scientist) citation , passage=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. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.}}

(label)

(obsolete) Relating to physic, or medicine; medicinal; curative; also, cathartic; purgative.

* Sir T. North

Physical herbs.

* Shakespeare

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

Adjective

(en adjective)

Necessary.

Very important; of high importance.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17

, author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot , title=Money just makes the rich suffer , volume=188, issue=23, page=19 , magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. The welfare state is dismantled. Essential public services are cut so that the rich may pay less tax. […]}}

Being in the basic form; showing its essence.

Don’t mind him being grumpy. That’s the essential Fred.

Really existing; existent.

* Webster (1623)

Is it true, that thou art but a name, / And no essential thing?

Such that each complementary region is irreducible, the boundary of each complementary region is incompressible by disks and monogons in the complementary region, and no leaf is a sphere or a torus bounding a solid torus in the manifold.

(medicine) Idiopathic.