verb
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to cover or impregnate (a wound, etc) with an ointment, cream, etc
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to treat (a patient) with a medicine
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to add a medication to (a bandage, shampoo, etc)
Other Word Forms
- demedicate verb (used with object)
- medicative adjective
- overmedicate verb (used with object)
- premedicate verb (used with object)
- unmedicated adjective
Etymology
Origin of medicate
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin medicātus “healed,” past participle of medicāre, medicārī “to heal,” from medicus “physician”; medical
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.
Jordan McDonough, a home inspector with three children who was himself medicated from childhood, is wrestling with how to help his 4-year-old son showing signs of ADHD.
“When he had a real mild fever and we medicated him right away, he acted normal. I actually was maybe looking at it with rose-colored glasses.”
From Los Angeles Times
The Colombian survivor arrived in his homeland "with a traumatic brain injury, sedated, medicated, and breathing with the help of a ventilator", according to Colombia's interior minister.
From BBC
She had been on anti-depressants but has come off them and is "correctly medicated" for her diagnoses.
From BBC
There was a stigma associated with ADHD—such as that students who had it weren’t very bright—and they didn’t like the idea of medicating their children.
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.
