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Glite Dictionary
Dover's powder

Dover's powder

9.9
A powder doctors used in the past to reduce pain and make people sweat
  • noun
  • NSFW
translation icon : polvo de Dover
  • Dover's Powder will be a stock item of ships' medicine chests for the next two hundred years, prescribed for colds, coughs, insomnia, rheumatism, and dysentery.

Examples

  • Dover's powder was often used by doctors to help patients suffering from severe pain.

  • In the past, Dover's powder was a common treatment for colds and fevers.

  • Many sailors carried Dover's powder in their medical supplies to treat various ailments.

Surface Forms

Dover's powder singular
Dover's powders plural

Morphology

Dover's + powder

This is a named, historical medicinal preparation: 'Dover's' is an eponym/proper name and 'powder' only indicates the physical form. A B1 learner who knows 'Dover' and 'powder' would not be able to infer the specific medical composition or use (ipecac + opium, used to relieve pain/induce sweating), so the meaning is encyclopedic/idiomatic rather than compositional.

Etymology

Dover's powder is named after an English doctor, Thomas Dover, who sold a small powdered medicine in the 1700s. The powder made people 'sweat' and helped 'relieve pain', so the name became the common word for that remedy.