Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Capable of easing pain or discomfort.
- n. A lenitive medicine.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Assuaging; palliating.
- n. A medicine or an application that has the quality of easing pain; anything which softens or mitigates.
- n. Anything which tends to allay passion or excitement; a palliative.
Wiktionary
- adj. Analgesic, able to reduce pain or suffering.
- adj. Mild; gentle.
- n. An analgesic or other source of relief from pain
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Having the quality of softening or mitigating, as pain or acrimony; assuasive; emollient.
- n. A medicine or application that has the quality of easing pain or protecting from the action of irritants.
- n. A mild purgative; a laxative.
- n. That which softens or mitigates; that which tends to allay passion, excitement, or pain; a palliative.
WordNet 3.0
- n. remedy that eases pain and discomfort
- adj. moderating pain or sorrow by making it easier to bear
Etymologies
- Middle English lenitif, from Old French, from Medieval Latin lēnītīvus, from Latin lēnītus, past participle of lēnīre, to soothe, from lēnis, soft; see lē- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Antony as to Cæsar; the easy Claudius allowed himself to be governed by Agrippina; easy applied to Claudius is only a lenitive, the proper expression is weak.”
“Wherefore the word X+S+D+, following may be taken adverbially, as a lenitive of that severity which this word importeth: "Let him smite me;" but”
“And in the hospital of the mind, the lenitive and fostering measures have a still larger share in the work of a moral restoration.”
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845
“Had he at the same time given me a tea-spoon, it would not have been so improper; for the poison might have been made up as a lenitive electuary.”
The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection
“The young victim of the wisdom of Solomon was boarded with the parish minister, in whose kindness he found a lenitive for the scholastic discipline he underwent.”
“After that, it will be convenient to prepare the body by some Julep or Apozeme, or to give some lenitive medicine to free the first region of the body from excrements.”
“It is religion alone which is of universal application, both as a stimulant and a lenitive, throughout the varied heritage which falls to the lot of man.”
“There is one sweet lenitive at least for evils, which Nature holds out to us: so I took it kindly at her hands, and fell asleep; and the first word which roused me was Amiens.”
“` ` The loss of one we tenderly love, as it is one of the most bitter and biting evils which attend human life, so it wants the lenitive which palliates and softens every other calamity; I mean that great reliever, hope.”
“There is one sweet lenitive at least for evils, which Nature holds out to us: so I took it kindly at her hands, and fell asleep; and the first word which roused me was Amiens. —”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘lenitive’.
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Collected Words - List 2
I've been saving these words FOR YEARS. Now, I've found Wordie
gasconade, zaccheus, spoor, precentor, bombazine, otiose, khamsin, bruited, viva voce, whilom, lenitive, ebullition and 244 more...
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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...
yarb The drift of the conversation was, as you may perceive, very much in the nature of a lenitive to my stomach...
- Lesage, The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, tr. Smollett, bk 10 ch. 12 Oct 9, 2008
jeffazi alleviating pain or harshness; soothing. Nov 20, 2007