antispasmodic agent
- noun
- /ˌæntiˈspæzmɒdɪk ˈeɪdʒənt/
- Specialized
:
agente antiespasmódico
- Certain antispasmodic agents are often used to treat irritable bowel syndrome.
Examples
-
Before surgery, an antispasmodic agent was administered to prevent muscle spasms.
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The doctor prescribed an antispasmodic agent to ease the patient's abdominal cramps.
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The doctor prescribed an antispasmodic agent for her abdominal pain.
-
Many antispasmodic agents are available over the counter.
-
The doctor prescribed an antispasmodic agent to help relieve her muscle cramps.
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For his irritable bowel syndrome, the specialist recommended an antispasmodic agent to ease the discomfort.
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After diagnosing the patient, the physician suggested using an antispasmodic agent to prevent spasms during treatment.
Synonyms
1
7.5
A medicine that reduces or stops sudden, painful muscle tightness, for example in the stomach
A medicine that eases sudden muscle spasms, often in the stomach
How Strong
- Specialized
- Specialized
5
3.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'antispasmodic' denotes a substance that prevents spasms and 'agent' denotes a substance or thing causing an effect, so together they straightforwardly mean a substance/drug that prevents or relieves spasms. This follows a common adjective+noun/noun‑noun naming pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can reasonably infer the MWE's meaning.
Etymology
The term antispasmodic agent puts together anti- meaning 'against', spasmodic meaning a sudden 'spasm' or muscle twitch, and agent meaning a drug. Imagine a medicine acting like a calm hand on a twitching muscle, so the phrase means 'a drug that stops muscle spasms'.