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
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
When the piles are external, or can be reached, one or two applications of Goulard's extract, with an occasional dose of lenitive electuary, will generally succeed in curing them.
From Enquire Within Upon Everything The Great Victorian Domestic Standby by Anonymous
Of moods they breathe that care disarm, They pledge us lenitive and calm.
From John Marr and Other Poems by Herman Melville
Keep the body open by means of lenitive electuary and rhubarb; for there is an objection to the tincture I mentioned, as containing alcohol.
From Popular Lectures on Zoonomia Or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease by Thomas Garnett
Keep the body open by two evacuations daily, if possible without medicine, if not take the size of a nutmeg of lenitive electuary occasionally, or five grains of rhubarb every night.
From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin
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.
