lenitive
Americanadjective
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softening, soothing, or mitigating, as medicines or applications.
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mildly laxative.
noun
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a lenitive medicine or application.
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a mild laxative.
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Archaic. anything that softens or soothes.
adjective
noun
Other Word Forms
- lenitively adverb
- lenitiveness noun
Etymology
Origin of lenitive
From the Medieval Latin word lēnītīvus, dating back to 1535–45. See lenition, -ive
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.
In the first week of the war the London Times recommended, for blackout nights, a reperusal of such "lenitive" 19th Century giants as Trollope and Dickens.
From Time Magazine Archive
And in the hospital of the mind, the lenitive and fostering measures have a still larger share in the work of a moral restoration.
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 58, Number 358, August 1845 by Various
After that, it will be convenient to prepare the body by some Julep or Apozeme, or to give some lenitive medicine to free the first region of the body from excrements.
From Spadacrene Anglica The English Spa Fountain by Rutherford, James
Yet see, Sir, the effect of that lenitive, though mixed with these bitter ingredients,—and how this rugged people can express themselves on a measure of concession.
From The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 02 (of 12) by Burke, Edmund
Of moods they breathe that care disarm, They pledge us lenitive and calm.
From John Marr and Other Poems by Melville, Herman
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.
