Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Capable of soothing or eliminating pain.
- adj. Relaxing: anodyne novels about country life.
- n. A medicine, such as aspirin, that relieves pain.
- n. A source of soothing comfort.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Having power to relieve pain; hence, soothing to the feelings.
- n. A medicine or drug which relieves pain, as an opiate or a narcotic; hence, figuratively, anything that allays mental pain or distress.
Wiktionary
- n. pharmacology Any medicine or other agent that relieves pain.
- n. figuratively A source of relaxation or comfort.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Serving to assuage pain; soothing.
- n. Any medicine which allays pain, as an opiate or narcotic; anything that soothes disturbed feelings.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. capable of relieving pain
- n. a medicine used to relieve pain
Etymologies
- From Latin anōdynus ("painless"), from Ancient Greek ἀνώδυνος (anōdynos, "free from pain"), from ἀν- (an-, "without") + ὀδύνη (odynē, "pain"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin anōdynus, from Greek anōdunos, free from pain : an-, without; see a-1 + odunē, pain; see ed- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“HoF II was designed by the Taylor Morrison company, a home builder specializing in anodyne subdevelopmental housing in the Southwest.”
“Theyre's a band called anodyne that sounds pretty interesting playing tomorrow, and I talked to Big Jim about going. .but the Nor'easter has put those plans in jeopardy.”
“It may be that the last new anodyne, which is warranted to have all the virtues and none of the ill-effects of opium, had also come to the end of _its_ tether.”
“A strong infusion or tea of the hop is one of the most valuable remedies we have for gravel, and inflammation of the kidneys and bladder, it is narcotic or anodyne, that is it alleviates pain and produces sleep.”
“As a noun, the English "anodyne" means "something that relieves pain," as you said, and as an adjective it means "pain-relieving.”
“She had this quote in her convention speech, a kind of anodyne quote about how small towns are good.”
“Any pretext for action was a kind of anodyne, and she despatched her maid to the Farlows 'with a note asking if Miss Viner would receive her.”
“One remembers Defoe, who for so many years lived in the reputation of honourable politics and in the odour of such sanctity as Robinson Crusoe could give, until the discovery of certain yellow papers revealed the base political treachery for which the great island story had been a kind of anodyne to conscience.”
“Rachel moved about in the darkened rooms, feeling as if the faint, sweet, overpowering perfume were a kind of anodyne, that was mercifully, during those early days, lulling her senses into lethargy.”
“_Last Essays on Church and Religion_, the first is an elaborate and rather anxious apology, and the second a collection of diverse and comparatively "anodyne" essays.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘anodyne’.
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Rare Words - A
Not just rare words, but thousands of RARE WORDS WITH DEFINITIONS.
If you want to see the definitions, too, go to
http://phrontistery.i...aba, abacinate, abactor, abaculus, abaft, abampere, abapical, abarticular, abasement, abasia, abask, abatis and 1214 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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A Sequel to 250 Spelling Words
Words to quiz the intermediate and advanced speller alike
sinopia, replevin, lathee, hoisin, kerygma, czardas, amoxicillin, talipes, simoleon, hypermnesia, anodyne, mystique and 238 more...
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Tristram Shandy
souse, meet, sententious, propound, boot, casuistry, avoirdupois, akimbo, disport, lenity, succussation, sweetbread and 155 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2046 more...
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phrontistery - a
from phrontistery.info
axilla, avalement, argil, argent, argand, arete, aretaics, areometer, areology, arenoid, arenaceous, arefy and 1214 more...
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Philosophic , etymology
every major discipline has uniquely developed esoteric nomenclature to facilitate interdisciplinary dissemination
quale , qualia, elegy, tacet, lexicon, annunciate, caste, eros, contrive, purlicue, irony, venacular, dilapidate and 567 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 481 more...
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Adjectives
anodyne, incessant, unbroken, malcontent, furtive, evocative, lithe, fugacious, aleatory, indelible, ephemeral, paltry
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New to Me
anodyne, salient, ecumenical, salubrious, invective, incendiary, colophon, stola, druthers, syllogism, geodesic, quant and 16 more...
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the lascivious
orgiastic, nymph, breathless, writhe, calypso, Medusa, virago, sapphic, catamite, bisou, buss, succubus and 48 more...
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Neuro-logical ??
The discovering of neuro and phago-cyte nano-engineered biology...
opsoclonus, opsomania, speciefic, opsonin, reveal, parsec, stereopsis, scarious, ablative absolute, presage, requisitory, nuance and 58 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for anodyne.
Arthurpod "The swelling night seemed full of the soft communions--anodynes for the loneliness of the dark."
Lord Foul's Bane Jul 29, 2012
chained_bear "The little Bible was no stranger to fear and suffering, and if it wasn't ether, I hoped it might still possess its own power of anodyne."
—Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (New York: Bantam Dell, 2005), 168 Jan 30, 2010
abby350 I think that people have been misusing anodyne, lately...to mean "harmless" in a sort of wet-noodly, pejorative sense. It's an interesting shift...implying that that which eliminates pain is without character...Has anybody else noticed this? Nov 2, 2009
super-amber "The Lottery, with its weekly pay-out of enormous prizes, was the one public event to which the proles paid serious attention ... It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant ... the prizes were largely imaginary. Only small sums were actually paid out, the winners of the big prizes being non-existent persons." George Orwell, 1984 Jun 18, 2009
treeseed The name of a great album by Uncle Tupelo.
Uncle Tupelo was an alternative country music group from Belleville, Illinois, active between 1987 and 1994. Jay Farrar, Jeff Tweedy, and Mike Heidorn formed the band after the lead singer of their previous band, The Primitives, left to attend college. The trio recorded three albums for Rockville Records, before signing with Sire Records and expanding to a five-piece. Shortly after the release of the band's major label debut album Anodyne, Farrar announced his decision to leave the band due to a soured relationship with his co-songwriter Tweedy. Uncle Tupelo split on May 1, 1994, after completing a farewell tour. Following the breakup, Farrar formed Son Volt with Heidorn, while the remaining members continued as Wilco.
_Wikipedia Feb 11, 2008
seanahan Space, the final frontier. Oct 18, 2007
annajane http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&start=0&oi=define&ei=3eUVR_HBKZ6ieZ7X9ZUI&sig2=KcKgi0IME1jb4JpVHstFOw&q=http://www.cncahealth.com/health-notes.htm%3FContentID%3D2107001&usg=AFQjCNF82uQHeUyMhV6vYHvkBtlZY5vMmg Oct 17, 2007