lenitive

Analgesic, able to reduce pain or suffering.

Adjective

  1. Analgesic, able to reduce pain or suffering.
  2. Laxative; easing the bowels.
  3. Mild; gentle.

Origin

From Latin lēnīt(us) (“softened”) + -ive, from lēniō (“to soften, soothe”), from lēnis (“soft”).

Forms

more lenitive most lenitive

Derived

lenitively lenitiveness

Noun

  1. An analgesic or other source of relief from pain
    • It is now full time to free him from all these necessities, and to apply cordials and lenitives, after those severities which have already had their full course against him. - 1688, David Hume, The History of England in...
    • Upon the whole, as the author seems to share all the common miseries of life, he appears to partake likewise of its lenitives and abatements. - 1825, Samuel Johnson, The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes:
    • Their pain soft arts of pharmacy can ease, Thy breast alone no lenitives appease. - 1899, Alexander Pope, The Iliad of Homer:
  2. A laxative.

Forms

lenitives