narcotic

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"I wish all users of the narcotic were as mindful of the comfort and health of their neighbours.

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Definitions (14)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun An addictive drug, such as opium, that reduces pain, alters mood and behavior, and usually induces sleep or stupor. Natural and synthetic narcotics are used in medicine to control pain.
  2. noun A soothing, numbing agent or thing: "There was the blessed narcotic of bridge, at the Colony or at the home of friends” (Louis Auchincloss).
  3. adjective Inducing sleep or stupor; causing narcosis.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • The exhilaration roared through his mind like a narcotic, and he lifted the twitching body by the neck, half-dragging it over to the generators. —  SCIENCE FICTION ADVENTURES MAGAZINE
  • At first I found them disturbing; slowly they became a kind of narcotic, as I realized that through them I could, however briefly and incompletely, become my echoes. —  F ;SF; - vol 092 issue 05 - May 1997
  • It's almost as strong - I'm very serious about this when I say this - as a narcotic, as tobacco, as well as alcohol. —  MoneyBlogNetwork
  • "I wish all users of the narcotic were as mindful of the comfort and health of their neighbours. —  Two Knapsacks A Novel of Canadian Summer Life
  • It was then, when the scent of elder blossom, decaying fruit, mud and hot yew brooded there, that the place attained one of its most individual moods--narcotic, aphrodisiac In winter the yews and firs were like waving funeral plumes and mantled, headless goddesses; then the giant beeches would lash themselves to frenzy, and, stooping, would scourge the ice on Undern Pool and the cracked walls of the house, like beings drunken with the passion of cruelty. —  Gone to Earth
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

cocaine ·  opiate ·  intoxicating ·  opium ·  antiseptic ·  noxious ·  marijuana ·  hallucinogenic ·  morphine ·  musky ·  corrosive ·  soporific

Used in the same contextWord Family

narcotic:   narcotics
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English narcotik, from Old French narcotique, from Medieval Latin narcōticum, from Greek narkōtikon, from neuter of narkōtikos, numbing, from narkōsis, a numbing; see narcosis.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Greek ναρκωτικός, making stiff or numb, narcotic, from ναρκοῦν, benumb, from νάρκη, numbness, torpor, perhaps orig. *σνάρκη, related to English snare and narrow.
 

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/nɑrˈkɑtɪk/
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