Primary
''sedative'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260605232103-00-⌔
sedative - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
sedative (plural sedatives)
- (pharmacology) An agent or drug that sedates, having a calming or soothing effect, or inducing sleep.
- ✤ Michael Jackson probably died after he rapidly injected himself with a dose of the surgical anesthetic propofol on top of a large dose of sedatives he swallowed when Dr. Conrad Murray was away, the defense’s propofol expert testified Friday. […] White also concluded that Jackson swallowed a large dose of lorazepam several hours earlier, which would have left “a very high concentration” of the sedative in his body.1
Adjective
sedative (comparative more sedative, superlative most sedative)
- (pharmacology) Calming, soothing, inducing sleep, tranquilizing
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English sedatif, from Anglo-Norman sedatif, from Medieval Latin sēdātīvus, which itself likely influenced the modern spelling. By surface analysis, sedate + -ive.
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈsɛdətɪv/
- Audio (Southern England): 🔊
- Rhymes: -ɪv
- Hyphenation: sed‧a‧tive
Printed 2026-06-28.
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Link to original Footnotes
2011 October 28, Alan Duke, “Michael Jackson gave himself fatal overdose, expert says”, in CNN , archived from the original on 29 December 2016: ↩
Secondary
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