Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A colorless, mobile, oily aldehyde, CCl3CHO, a penetrating lung irritant, used to manufacture DDT and chloral hydrate.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A colorless mobile liquid (CCl3.CHO), having an agreeable pungent smell and biting taste, first prepared by Liebig from chlorin and alcohol, afterward by Städeler by the action of chlorin on starch. The hydrate of chloral (CCl3. CH(OH)2), as now prepared, is a white crystalline substance having a pungent odor and an acrid taste. In contact with alkalis it separates into chloroform and formic acid. In medicine it is used as a hypnotic, and in doses of from 15 to 30 grains usually produces calm sleep, which lasts for several hours, and is not followed by unpleasant effects, such as frequently attend the use of morphine. In overdoses it paralyzes the nerve-centers, arresting respiration and the action of the heart, and causes death.” When used continuously it may produce very serious effects on the system.
Wiktionary
- n. A colourless narcotic liquid, trichloroacetaldehyde, CCl3CHO, obtained at first by the action of chlorine on alcohol and that, when treated with water, produces chloral hydrate.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Chem.) A colorless oily liquid, CCl3.CHO, of a pungent odor and harsh taste, obtained by the action of chlorine upon ordinary or ethyl alcohol.
- n. (Med.) Chloral hydrate.
Etymologies
- Contracted from chlor(ine) and al(cohol) (Wiktionary)
- chlor(ine) + al(cohol). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: The medical examiner says that she was taking a liquid sleeping medication called chloral hydrate in combination with anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs that she was taking.”
“The thought of the chloral was the only spot of light in the dark prospect: she could feel its lulling influence stealing over her already.”
“No sooner had they left the room and locked me in than I tried so see how far down my throat my finger would go, and the chloral was allowed to try its effect elsewhere.”
“You cannot basically put this kind of chloral hydrate undetected in a beverage because it has a very distinctive, unpleasant taste.”
“Sedatives such as chloral hydrate may be used to quiet the animal.”
“The fashionable devotee, in order to counteract this, either stimulates the system with alcohol, or exorcises the "fidgets" by the use of sedatives, such as chloral or morphia.”
Religion and Lust or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire
“In his doctor’s bag Kingston had some chloral, which is a reputable narcotic when used in moderation.”
The Case of the Late Pig
“Since the war M. Daudet has never had an hour's sleep without artificial aid, such as chloral; but devotees of Lady Nicotine will be interested to learn that in answer to a question he once said, "I have smoked a great deal while working, and the more I smoked the better I worked.”
The Idler Magazine, Volume III., July 1893 An Illustrated Monthly
“Typically, his friends were eager to avoid calling his breakdown even temporary insanity and blamed it on the large amounts of bromide and chloral he was taking for sleep, on top of his usual heavy consumption of brandy, wine, and crème de menthe.”
“By all accounts, Williams's doctor, Toby Marshall, was a quack whose cure for drinking involved lots of chloral hydrate, a sedative.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘chloral’.
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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-al
belonging to; like; nouns from; act or process of
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Out of Gormenghast
Words from Mervyn Peake's books.
recrudescent, propinquital, circumfusion, roisterer, calid, poissonnier, rôtier, légumier, saucier, cretinous, palliative, spindrift and 48 more...
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Dracula
Words from Dracula
caleche, patronymic, saturnine, portmanteau, cudgelling, mattock, embrasure, faugh, disgorged, brool, scuppers, spume and 21 more...
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Gormenghastocabulary
Words I especially enjoyed while reading Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake.
recrudescent, propinquital, calid, rissoles, stenching, crapulous, pullulation, spilths, lambent, rabous, byre, lapsury and 33 more...
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