soporific
/ˌsɒpəˈrɪfɪk
/adjective
1Tending to induce drowsiness or sleep: the motion of the train had a somewhat soporific effect...
- Instead, I stood mesmerised by his soporific chanting.
- I shook my head and looked down at Shadow, now resting peacefully, the soporific noises of the waterfall lulling him to sleep.
- His voice is hypnotic, soporific - the kind of voice that could mesmerise you into taking all your clothes off and biting into an onion.
1.1Sleepy or drowsy: some medicine made her soporific...
- Those intrusions of the world outside awaken me from my soporific slumber, as I dwell in drowsy numbness, as though of hemlock I have drunk.
- In our sleepy little town where things moved with the soporific gait of undersea vegetation, high fashion made its startling appearance all of a sudden!
- The combined talents of Larsson and his English foil were responsible for earning Celtic an early lead, but soporific defending also helped the home cause.
1.2Tediously boring or monotonous: a libel trial is in large parts intensely soporific...
- The pros and cons of this fanciful idea are hard to assess, since he talks in a soporific monotone that renders half of what he says inaudible.
- No matter what your allegiances - we need a contest of ideas at the next election - and we look like we will get a contest of the soporific, idea-less and boring.
- I certainly wouldn't read books if they were boring, irrelevant and soporific - which is how most high school kids regard the classics of world literature.
Synonyms
sleep-inducing, somnolent, sedative, calmative, tranquillizing, narcotic, opiate, drowsy, sleepy, somniferous;
boring, dull, deadly dull, monotonous;
Medicine hypnotic
rare somnific
noun
A drug or other substance that induces drowsiness or sleep.The meal was light - perhaps eggs and a posset (hot milk fortified with sugar, spices, eggs, and wine, brandy, or ale, and on one notable occasion with additional soporifics by Lady Macbeth)....
- When Walter was courting India, he spoke to her one night of Ruskin (she was impressed), but by middle age he reads only mystery novels, ‘as soporifics.’
- Having once driven a Volvo - although not the admirable, if underpowered, 1800 - the Professor has little faith in the Swede's ability to produce anything but soporifics.
Synonyms
sleeping pill, sleeping potion, sedative, calmative, tranquillizer, narcotic, opiate;
Medicine hypnotic
Derivatives
soporifically
- The album is also a loose musing on life itself: things begins blissfully if slightly soporifically before getting very interesting in the middle.
- It begins with a shadow-play featuring a man about to be crushed by a giant boot, then ambles soporifically to its mid-point.
- The quality and conviction of her performance almost rescued even that most soporifically self-important of police dramas Inspector Morse.
Origin
Mid 17th century: from Latin sopor 'sleep' + -ific.