chloroform

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A clear, colorless, heavy, sweet-smelling liquid, CHCl₃, used in refrigerants, propellants, and resins, as a solvent, and sometimes as an anesthetic. Chloroform, once widely used in human and veterinary surgery, has generally been replaced by less toxic, more easily controlled agents.
2. v. To treat with chloroform to anesthetize, render unconscious, or kill.
3. v. To apply chloroform to.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Trichlormethane, or formyl trichlorid (CHCl₃); a volatile colorless liquid, of an agreeable sweetish taste and fragrant smell, and having the specific gravity 1.48. It is prepared by cautiously distilling together a mixture of alcohol, water, and chlorid of lime or bleaching-powder. Its chief use is in medicine as an anesthetic in diseases attended with great pain, in surgical operations, and in childbirth. For this purpose its vapor is inhaled. The inhalation of chloroform first produces slight intoxication; then, frequently, slight muscular contractions, unruliness, and dreaming; then loss of voluntary motion, consciousness, and sensibility, the patient appearing as if sound asleep; and at last, if too much is given, death by failure of the heart or respiration. When skilfully administered, in proper cases, it is a safe anesthetic. Chloroform is slightly inferior to ether in point of safety, but is quicker in its action and not so apt to produce vomiting, so that for certain cases it is preferred. It is a powerful solvent, dissolving resins, wax, iodine, etc., as well as strychnine and other alkaloids.
2. To subject to the influence of chloroform; administer chloroform to, for the purpose of inducing anæsthesia, unconsciousness, or death.

Wiktionary

1. n. chemistry A halogenated hydrocarbon, trichloromethane, CHCl3; it is a volatile, sweet-smelling liquid, used extensively as a solvent and formerly as an anesthetic.
2. v. To treat with chloroform, or to render unconscious with chloroform.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Chem.) A colorless volatile liquid, CHCl3, having an ethereal odor and a sweetish taste, formed by treating alcohol with chlorine and an alkali. It is a powerful solvent of wax, resin, etc., and is extensively used to produce anæsthesia in surgical operations; also externally, to alleviate pain.
2. v. To treat with chloroform, or to place under its influence.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a volatile liquid haloform (CHCl3); formerly used as an anesthetic
2. v. anesthetize with chloroform