anesthetize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
anesthetizes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
anesthetized,
past participle, past
-
anesthetizing
present participle
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
anesthetizesimple
-
anesthetizessimple
-
have anesthetizedperfect
-
has anesthetizedperfect
-
am anesthetizingprogressive
-
are anesthetizingprogressive
-
is anesthetizingprogressive
-
have been anesthetizingperfect progressive
-
has been anesthetizingperfect progressive
Past
-
anesthetizedsimple
-
had anesthetizedperfect
-
was anesthetizingprogressive
-
were anesthetizingprogressive
-
had been anesthetizingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of anesthetize
1840–50; < Greek anaísthēt ( os ) ( see anesthetic) + -ize
Explanation
If you need to have surgery, a doctor will anesthetize you, or give you medicine to make you sleep through the operation. When a vet knocks your dog out to clean his teeth, she anesthetizes him. Oral surgeons also anesthetize patients before removing their wisdom teeth. In both cases, special drugs are used to put the patient under, or make him sleep long enough for the procedure to be finished before he wakes up. A doctor whose job it is to anesthetize patients is called an anesthesiologist. The root word is Greek: anaisthesia, "lack of feeling or sensation."
Vocabulary lists containing anesthetize
Novel Study: Fahrenheit 451, Part III
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Poems 8.6
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Kids are naturally inquisitive, but modern schooling is too often designed to anesthetize curiosity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Zoo officials said the tragedy shows why decisions to anesthetize animals are not taken lightly.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 30, 2023
“Knowing myself, I would have continued to anesthetize myself and find other compartments in my soul to bury it,” he said.
From New York Times ● Jun. 2, 2023
“We need to use our drug doses very carefully and make sure that we give them enough drugs to anesthetize them safely,” he said.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 7, 2022
Two applications are usually sufficient completely to anesthetize the exterior and interior of the larynx by blocking of the superior laryngeal nerve without any endolaryngeal applications.
From Bronchoscopy and Esophagoscopy A Manual of Peroral Endoscopy and Laryngeal Surgery by Chevalier Jackson
That’s not easy, since capybaras max out around 155 pounds; sometimes he anesthetizes them for the trip back to the river.
From Slate ● May 27, 2026
After several visits, Marx underwent a TAP block, an injection that anesthetizes the anterior abdominal wall.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2021
She anesthetizes the animals, carefully removes their brains, firms the brains up with formalin, freezes them, then shaves them into slices thinner than a strand of human hair to study under a microscope.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 16, 2013
The anesthesiologist anesthetizes the patient, then infuses a drug, usually nitroprusside, to dilate the blood vessels.
From Time Magazine Archive
Your wife has leprosy!—not the physical form, but the kind that anesthetizes, ulcerates, deforms the soul—the leprosy of self-pity.
From Our Nervous Friends — Illustrating the Mastery of Nervousness by Robert S. Carroll
“The brain didn’t evolve to be anesthetized, so we want to understand how the brain comes back from it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Bogdan fears that by cleaning up Meridian Hill Park -- which is managed and maintained by the National Park Service -- its history as a place of Black protest and community will be anesthetized.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
To test the observation, they strapped pressure sensors around the bellies of lightly anesthetized mice and observed the brain when slight pressure was applied only to the abdominal muscles.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2026
To confirm that abdominal pressure was the key factor, the team applied gentle, controlled pressure to the abdomens of lightly anesthetized mice.
From Science Daily ● May 1, 2026
To reduce the pain, they anesthetized his throat.
From "The Other Wes Moore: One Name, Two Fates" by Wes Moore
The next day, the video shows care staff anesthetizing Jackie for the blood transfusion and notes she was stronger and more alert the next day.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
These are meant to be the anesthetizing accompaniment to playlists featuring purveyors of sonic wallpaper made to help your whole body chill out — a vibe-fest, on demand.
From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2025
Sampling wild primates traditionally requires trapping and anesthetizing the animals.
From Science Magazine ● Jan. 5, 2023
What the film does not anticipate is that, while collectively bearing witness to the deaths of half a million Americans and counting, we would also experience the pandemic through a series of anesthetizing diversions.
From New York Times ● Apr. 27, 2021
At its head stood a squat metal cylinder sprouting a long flexible tube which ended in a cone—no doubt the anesthetizing apparatus.
From The Affair of the Brains by Anthony Gilmore
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
