Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Dormitive

Dor′mi-tive

,
Adj.
[Cf. F.
dormitif
, fr.
dormire
to sleep.]
Causing sleep;
as, the
dormitive
properties of opium
.
Clarke.
Noun.
(Med.)
A medicine to promote sleep; a soporific; an opiate.

Webster 1828 Edition


Dormitive

DORMITIVE

,
Noun.
[L., to sleep.] A medicine to promote sleep; an opiate.

Definition 2024


dormitive

dormitive

English

Adjective

dormitive (comparative more dormitive, superlative most dormitive)

  1. Causing sleep.
    • 1916, John Dewey, Democracy and Education:
      But "imitation" throws no light upon why they so act; it repeats the fact as an explanation of itself. It is an explanation of the same order as the famous saying that opium puts men to sleep because of its dormitive power.
    • 1673, Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), Le Malade Imaginere, Act III, Interlude iii:
      Quare Opium facit dormire: ... Quia est in eo Virtus dormitiva. (Why Opium produces sleep: ... Because there is in it a dormitive power.)

Derived terms

Related terms

Noun

dormitive (plural dormitives)

  1. A medicine to promote sleep; a soporific or opiate.

French

Adjective

dormitive

  1. feminine singular of dormitif