tranquillize
/ˈtraŋkwɪlʌɪz
/(also tranquillise; US tranquilize)
verb [with object] (usually as adjective tranquillizing)
1(Of a drug) have a calming or sedative effect on: the majority regarded tranquillizing drugs as the chief therapeutic weapon...
- Generation after generation of families of families, systematically marginalised by their supposed betters and tranquillised by welfare and drugs, are doomed to the underclass.
- Drinking alcohol does not produce true ‘relaxation’ - it ‘drugs’ or ‘tranquilizes’ the drinker, and alcohol cannot only disrupt sleep, it can cause stress.
- It is a tricyclic antidepressant with one of the most powerful anti-itch and antihistaminic effects, as well as sedative / tranquilizing effects.
1.1Administer a tranquillizer to (a person or animal): the dogs had to be tranquillized before their owner’s body could be brought out...
- Animal control officers managed to tranquilize the frightened creature and removed it.
- In such cases, they hold you down and tranquilize you, like an animal, like the unreachable wounded animal they consider you to be.
- They are going to tranquilize the deer if they find him with tranquilizer guns, but they have to shoot the alligators.
Synonyms
sedate, calm (down), soothe, quiet, quieten (down), pacify, settle someone's/something's nerves, mollify, lull, relax;
stupefy, anaesthetize, narcotize, knock out, drug;
administer a sedative/tranquillizer to
informal dope, zonk
1.2 literary Make tranquil: joys that tranquillize the mind...
- The second function of music therapy is relaxation because the music can tranquilize the mind by nourishing the heart.
- To be plopped in the river's midst, in a canoe, on a spectacular day, is tranquilizing.
- Her voice chokes and cracks breathlessly just above the mix; cymbal washes slowly tranquilize the listener.