Sedative
['sedətɪv] or ['sɛdətɪv]
Definition
(noun.) a drug that reduces excitability and calms a person.
Edited by Claudette--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Tending to calm, moderate, or tranquilize
(a.) allaying irritability and irritation; assuaging pain.
(n.) A remedy which allays irritability and irritation, and irritative activity or pain.
Edited by Angus
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Soothing, tranquillizing, calming, emollient, assuasive, assuaging, lenient, lenitive, demulcent, balmy.
n. Opiate, anodyne, narcotic.
Editor: Lorna
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Allaying, tranquillizing, composing, soothing, demulcent, palliative,assuasive, lenient, anodyne, hypnotic
ANT:Disturbing, exciting, irritant
Editor: Nita
Examples
- The church is calm enough, I am sure; but it might be a steam-power loom in full action, for any sedative effect it has on me. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Bessie now endeavoured to persuade her to take a sedative draught: she succeeded with difficulty. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- The drought which Reuben administered was of a sedative and narcotic quality, and secured the patient sound and undisturbed slumbers. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- You are of an excitable temper and want a sedative. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Later, as the sedative action began to gain on the stimulant action, you would slowly become inert and stupefied. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- The action of opium is comprised, in the majority of cases, in two influences--a stimulating influence first, and a sedative influence afterwards. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- I am sure that, with your symptoms, my friend Dr. Watson here would prescribe a sedative. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- She shall make you comfortable: she shall give you a sedative. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Was it possible that the sedative action of the opium was making itself felt already? Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- The sedative influence had got him; the experiment was at an end. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
Inputed by Lilly