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truth serum

truth serum

8 6.7
A drug given to relax someone and make them more likely to say what they know
  • noun
  • /truːθ ˈsɪrəm/
  • Specialized
translation icon : suero de la verdad
  • Psychologists sometimes explore the effects of truth serum in therapy sessions to lower patient inhibitions.
  • administer truth serum
  • give truth serum
  • truth serum might work

You dabbled in a little bit season one with the deprivation, but I loved the truth serum and I loved the ayahuasca trip.

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Examples

  • Nazis used it as a truth serum.

  • - It can be used as a truth serum.

  • It's also known as a kind of truth serum.

  • We give her some truth serum.

  • Then take the truth serum.

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  • We have a warehouse, you'll bring them there before us and interrogate them under a truth serum.

  • As part of Candor's initation you administrate a truth serum.

  • The detective decided to use a truth serum to help the suspect relax and share more information.

  • In some movies, characters are often shown being administered truth serum to reveal secrets during interrogations.

Synonyms

truth drug
vstruth serum
  • Specialized
1 5.9

Medicine that makes someone talk by reducing fear of speaking

states it actually induces relaxation and is used to try to elicit information

How Disinhibiting

truth serum
  • Specialized
8 6.7
tranquilizer
  • Specialized
52 6.1

Surface Forms

truth serum singular
truth serums plural

Morphology

truth + serum

The noun combines 'truth' (fact/reality) with 'serum' (a medicinal liquid), so a B1 learner who knows both words will naturally infer it denotes a medicinal liquid associated with truth — i.e. a drug intended to make someone reveal the truth. The concept is compositionally predictable and found in similar form in other languages, so the meaning is transparent to learners who know the constituents.

Etymology

Truth serum comes from times when doctors gave people a liquid medicine, a serum, that relaxed them so they talked more and sometimes told the truth. So today truth serum means a drug used to try to make someone 'tell the truth'.