sedate
[si-deyt]
- calm, quiet, or composed; undisturbed by passion or excitement: a sedate party; a sedate horse.
- to put (a person) under sedation.
Origin of sedate
Synonyms
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com1. collected, serene, unruffled, unperturbed. See staid.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sedate
Contemporary Examples
It is unclear how Trierweiler came to the conclusion that the Élysée had allegedly been ordering the doctors to sedate her.
Hell Hath No Fury Like Valerie Trierweiler, the French President’s ExLizzie Crocker
November 28, 2014
They are introduced; they call each other “Mr.” and “Miss”; they dance a sedate foxtrot.
He boasted of doing so much drugs that he had enough “running through my circulatory system to sedate Guatemala.”
I don't quite understand how a city can be so sedate and frenetic at the same time, but somehow Los Angeles manages it.
Where Citrus County felt like a coiled spring, the pace of A Million Heavens is sedate, diffused among a dozen or so characters.
3 Must-Read Offbeat Novels: ‘A Million Heavens,’ ‘The Investigation,’ ‘Office Girl’Drew Toal, Kevin Canfield, Daniel Roberts
July 6, 2012
Historical Examples
I love to hear you talk, when you are so sedate as you seem now to be.
Clarissa, Volume 2 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
I had been told that the English were cold and sedate: I found them charming and full of humour.
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
We grew sedate; sedate were the brows of the few strangers we met.
The CavalierGeorge Washington Cable
Grave and sedate, as if knowing the sorrowful thoughts of his master.
PoemsWilliam D. Howells
The one servant of the house waited at table, prim, sedate, formal.
Cleo The MagnificentLouis Zangwill
sedate1
- habitually calm and composed in manner; serene
- staid, sober, or decorous
Word Origin
C17: from Latin sēdāre to soothe; related to sedēre to sit
sedate2
- (tr) to administer a sedative to
Word Origin
C20: back formation from sedative
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for sedate
adj.
"calm, quiet," 1660s, from Latin sedatus "composed, moderate, quiet, tranquil," past participle of sedare "to settle, calm," causative of sedere "to sit" (see sedentary). Related: Sedately.
v.
"treat with sedatives," 1945, a back-formation from the noun derivative of sedative (adj.). The word also existed 17c. in a sense "make calm or quiet." Related: Sedated; sedating.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
sedate
(sĭ-dāt′)
- To administer a sedative to; calm or relieve by means of a sedative drug.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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