🧪 A liquid chemical 😴 To make unconscious

to chloroform

3 9.6

To make someone unconscious by giving them a drug that makes them sleep

verb
/ˈklɔːrəˌfɔːrm/

Specialized

: cloroformar

To calm the distressed animal, the veterinarian decided to chloroform it temporarily.

We're going to chloroform you all and so we can get in here first.

Examples

We must take him when he's asleep and chloroform him.

The Invisible Man (1933)
Today he has come; he has operated on me, and chloroformed me.

Academic text (2007)
It's been a long time since I've been chloroformed.

The Whole Ten Yards (2004)
They had all four been expertly chloroformed.

Fiction book (1997)
The doctor had to chloroform the patient before starting the surgery.
In the past, surgeons would often chloroform patients to perform operations without causing pain.

Synonyms

to drug

vsto chloroform

NSFW

21 7.2

To give someone a substance to make them sleep or act differently

is limited to causing unconsciousness with one specific medical chemical not any general substance

to anesthetize

vsto chloroform

Specialized

12 7.1

To give medicine so a person or animal cannot feel pain, often before surgery

is about causing unconsciousness using one specific historical chemical rather than any medicine

to anesthetise

vsto chloroform

Specialized

6.1

Give medicine so a person or animal does not feel pain during a medical procedure

is about causing unconsciousness using one specific historical chemical rather than any medicine

Surface Forms

chloroform infinitive

chloroformed past

chloroformed past participle

chloroforming present participle

chloroforms third person singular

Etymology

Chloroform as a verb comes from the chemical chloroform and means 'to make someone unconscious' by using that drug. Because doctors once used the liquid to put patients to sleep for surgery, to chloroform someone means to cause them to lose consciousness.