etherize

especially British, e·ther·ise

[ee-thuh-rahyz]

verb (used with object)

etherized, etherizing 

1. Medicine/Medical.,  to put under the influence of ether; anesthetize.

2. to render groggy or numb, as if by an anesthetic.

etherize

/ ˈiːθəˌraɪz /

verb

1. obsolete,  (tr) to subject (a person) to the anaesthetic influence of ether fumes; anaesthetize

Other Word Forms

• etherization noun
• etherizer noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of etherize¹

First recorded in 1740–50; ether + -ize

Example Sentences

Her boyfriend, a grade older, is “laid out on a bed, like a patient etherized upon a table.”

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The pleasure this writing affords — its plushness, patient description, etherizing beauty — does not stem from its closeness to life, however.

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The patient, a woman in her twenties, lay etherized upon a table.

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It hit him in their bedroom on a summer day in 2016: an unfamiliar, etherizing wave.

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Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which of course begins, “Shall we go then, you and I, while the evening is spread out across the sky like a patient etherized upon a table.”

Read more on Salon

Related Words

• desensitize 
• impair