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
Catholicon, is little used, or made here, the lenitive Electuary of our Dispensatory may be substituted for it, or that of the Edinburgh Dispensatory, which was calculated particularly for Glysters.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David) Tissot
There is one sweet lenitive at least for evils, which Nature holds out to us: so I took it kindly at her hands, and fell asleep; and the first word which roused me was Amiens.
From A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy by Laurence Sterne
Thomson's way of dealing with this cause of discontent did not dispose of it for ever, but it at least provided a lenitive.
From The Winning of Popular Government A Chronicle of the Union of 1841 by Archibald MacMechan
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