Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A trade-name for diethylmalonylurea, used medicinally as a hypnotic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A barbiturate, diethylmalonyl urea or diethylbarbituric acid; barbitol, used formerly to induce sleep.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a barbiturate used as a hypnotic

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The 1870s had seen an increase in the use of drugs as they became more available, and though chloral (prescribed to combat insomnia after 1869) and barbiturates such as veronal or gardenal were popular, the great favorite of the epoch was opium, and its derivative, morphine.

    Eaters of Dreams | Edwardian Promenade 2008

  • Ivanov had asked him to procure veronal for him, and in a discussion which lasted the whole afternoon, had tried to prove that every man had a right to suicide.

    Autumn Thomas Plastino Martin 2010

  • So where is that jackass Peratt or even the veronal addicted Kristian Olaf Birkeland when you need them?

    Small Asteroids, Bread Flour, and a Dutch Physicist's 150-year Old Theory | Universe Today 2010

  • "Do you remember the veronal?" said Ivanov slowly.

    Autumn Thomas Plastino Martin 2010

  • Then he and his wife, Lotte, took fatal overdoses of veronal.

    Writer's Block . . . Stefan Zweig Tess Lewis 2008

  • She had no veronal, or anything of that sort, he hoped.

    Swan Song 2004

  • I might have taken the wrong box of medicine and, instead of swallowing a few capsules of veronal on a day when I felt that I had drunk too many cups of tea, might have swallowed as many capsules of caffeine; my heart would not have throbbed more violently.

    The Sweet Cheat Gone 2003

  • Miss Dawson was ill and helpless; Bertha Gotobed possibly stupified by a heavy meal and an unaccustomed quantity of wine; Trigg was given a sufficient dose of veronal to send him to sleep, and I was offered something of probably the same kind — I wish I could have kept the remains of that coffee.

    Unnatural Death Sayers, Dorothy L.Lord Peter 03 1988

  • ‘I bought a revolver at Arpajon, during another of my brother’s trips to Paris … And as I slept badly I got myself some veronal

    Maigret at the Crossroads Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1963

  • As he spoke he thrust the revolver into his pocket, noted that half the veronal tablets in the tube were missing, and went over to the door to try the key in the lock, where it fitted perfectly.

    Maigret at the Crossroads Simenon, Georges, 1903- 1963

Comments

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  • "When he reappeared there was the scum of veronal on his lips and his gestures were slower". Anais Nin in her story 'Je suis le plus malade des surrealistes' from Under the Glass Bell.

    February 9, 2013