lenitive
9.9
A medicine that soothes pain or discomfort
- noun
- /ˈlɛnɪtɪv/
- Specialized
:
lenitivo
- The doctor recommended a lenitive to help relieve her severe headache.
Examples
-
For this apotheosis, Montaigne himself should not get all that much credit; what he contributed was simple common sense, moderation, and toleration as lenitives for assuaging the religious savagery he had always deplored.
Academic text (1991) -
"Over the years, I have had pumped up my fundament and dynes, laxatives, lenitives, and astringents, to say nothing of emollients and carminatives.
Fiction book (1992) -
He used a herbal lenitive to soothe his stomach pain after the meal.
-
The nurse provided a lenitive cream to ease the patient's skin irritation.
Antonyms
How Soothing
anesthetic
43
4.9
- Specialized
43
4.9
palliative
1
7.7
- Specialized
1
7.7
lenitive
- Specialized
remedy
77
3.4
77
3.4
treatment
∞
2.1
- Specialized
∞
2.1
Surface Forms
Etymology
The word lenitive comes from the Latin lenire 'to soften' and lenis 'soft', the same root as lenient. So a lenitive is a 'softening' remedy — something that soothes or eases discomfort.