Definition of "tranquilize"

Miss Ratched shall line us all against the wall, where we’ll face the terrible maw of a muzzle-loading shotgun which she has loaded with Miltowns! Thorazines! Libriums! Stelazines! And with a wave of her sword, blooie! Tranquilize all of us completely out of existence.

1962, Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest‎, New York: Dial, page 255

When the public protests, confronted with some obvious evidence of damaging results of pesticide applications, it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half truth.

1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 2, in Silent Spring‎, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 13

[…] with words of sweetest kindness and consolation, he soothed and tranquilised me.

1779, Frances Burney, Evelina, Dublin: Price, Corcoran et al., Volume 2, Letter 14, p. 87

[…] I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven, for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose,—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

1818, [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones

This threat, the reader may well suppose, was not very tranquilizing to my feelings.

1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 13, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […]

The column was placed under the orders of Major Renaud, who pushed up the road; fighting as occasion offered; tranquillizing the country by the very simple expedient of hanging everybody who showed signs of insubordination […]

1865, G. O. Trevelyan, chapter 5, in Cawnpore‎, London: Macmillan, page 322

Supported by an impregnable sense of justice but still dangerously fuming, Lucia went back to her garden-room, to tranquillize herself with an hour’s practice on the new piano.

1931, E. F. Benson, chapter 4, in Mapp and Lucia‎

But time had tranquillized Dina’s worries about the landlord.

1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 11, in A Fine Balance‎, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, page 497

Seest thou not, that this unseasonable gravity is admitted to quell the palpitations of this unmanageable heart? But still it will go on with its boundings. I’ll try, as I ride in my chariot, to tranquillize.

1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter I”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume V, London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; […], page 11

Moose should only be down about 15 to 20 minutes after being tranquilized.

2004 March 15, Laura Hancock, Deseret News‎