The AI-powered English dictionary
plural narcotics
(pharmacology) Any substance or drug that reduces pain, induces sleep and may alter mood or behaviour; in some contexts, especially in reference to the opiates-and-opioids class, especially in reference to illegal drugs, and often both. quotations
"Real San Juan Colorado," he said. "Excitable people like you are the better for narcotics. Heavens! don't bite it! Cut - and cut with reverence!"
1912, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Lost World […], London, New York, N.Y.: Hodder and Stoughton
Any type of numbing or soothing drug. quotations examples
But, for the unquiet heart and brain,A use in measured language lies;The sad mechanic exercise,Like dull narcotics, numbing pain.
1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto V
Podson grabbed at his tobacco with a fervent, "God! just about saved my life." With a cigarette going he grabbed at the papers, requiring spiritual sustenance as well as a divine narcotic.
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, page 139
comparative more narcotic, superlative most narcotic
Of, or relating to narcotics. examples
(pharmacology) Inducing sleep; causing narcosis.