LENITIVE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lenitive mean? 

• LENITIVE (noun)
  The noun LENITIVE has 1 sense:

1. remedy that eases pain and discomfort

  Familiarity information: LENITIVE used as a noun is very rare.

• LENITIVE (adjective)
  The adjective LENITIVE has 1 sense:

1. moderating pain or sorrow by making it easier to bear

  Familiarity information: LENITIVE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LENITIVE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Remedy that eases pain and discomfort

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("lenitive" is a kind of...):

curative; cure; remedy; therapeutic (a medicine or therapy that cures disease or relieve pain)

Derivation:

lenitive (moderating pain or sorrow by making it easier to bear)

• LENITIVE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Moderating pain or sorrow by making it easier to bear

Synonyms:

alleviative; alleviatory; lenitive; mitigative; mitigatory; palliative

Similar:

moderating (lessening in intensity or strength)

Derivation:

lenitive (remedy that eases pain and discomfort)

 Context examples 

This doctor therefore proposed, that upon the meeting of the senate, certain physicians should attend it the three first days of their sitting, and at the close of each day’s debate feel the pulses of every senator; after which, having maturely considered and consulted upon the nature of the several maladies, and the methods of cure, they should on the fourth day return to the senate house, attended by their apothecaries stored with proper medicines; and before the members sat, administer to each of them lenitives, aperitives, abstersives, corrosives, restringents, palliatives, laxatives, cephalalgics, icterics, apophlegmatics, acoustics, as their several cases required; and, according as these medicines should operate, repeat, alter, or omit them, at the next meeting.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)