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morphine

American  
[mawr-feen] / ˈmɔr fin /
Also morphia

noun

Pharmacology.

  1. a white, bitter, crystalline alkaloid, C 1 7 H 1 9 NO 3 ⋅H 2 O, the most important narcotic and addictive principle of opium, obtained by extraction and crystallization and used chiefly in medicine as a pain reliever and sedative.

morphine British  
/ ˈmɔːfiːn, ˈmɔːfɪə /

noun

  1. an alkaloid extracted from opium: used in medicine as an analgesic and sedative, although repeated use causes addiction. Formula: C 17 H 19 NO 3

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
morphine Scientific  
/ môr′fēn′ /

  1. A highly addictive drug derived from opium and used to treat intractable pain, as in severe injury or metastatic cancer.

morphine Cultural  

  1. An addictive drug derived from opium that is used as an analgesic and sedative.

Other Word Forms

Etymology

Origin of morphine

From the German word Morphin, dating back to 1820–30. See Morpheus, -ine 2

Explanation

Morphine is a pain-relieving medication. Someone who's in the hospital recovering from an accident or surgery might be prescribed morphine. Morphine is a powerful narcotic that's related to opium — it's an opiate. Because of its strength and the danger of patients becoming addicted to it (as well as some nasty side effects), morphine is only prescribed in serious cases. Morphine is the French version of a word coined by a German pharmacist, Morphin, after the Ancient Greek god Morpheus, the god of dreams.

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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.

Faithfull co-wrote Sister Morphine with Jagger and Richards and released the song in 1969.

From BBC • Jan. 30, 2025

“Mighty Morphine Power Rangers,” about five teenagers deputized to save Earth from the evil, debuted on Fox in 1993 and went on to become a pop-culture phenomenon.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 20, 2022

In 1993, the iconoclastic alternative act Morphine reached its apex with the album “Cure for Pain.”

From Washington Post • Sep. 8, 2021

Morphine patches provided temporary relief but were soon no longer covered by insurance and purchasing them was prohibitively expensive.

From Washington Times • Dec. 16, 2019

Morphine, for example, is prepared by allowing opium to putrefy; and the process for preparing leucin, a substance which contains 10.72 of nitrogen, is to bring cheese into putrefaction.

From The Commercial Products of the Vegetable Kingdom Considered in Their Various Uses to Man and in Their Relation to the Arts and Manufactures; Forming a Practical Treatise & Handbook of Reference for the Colonist, Manufacturer, Merchant, and Consumer, on the Cultivation, Preparation for Shipment, and Commercial Value, &c. of the Various Substances Obtained From Trees and Plants, Entering into the Husbandry of Tropical and Sub-tropical Regions, &c. by Simmonds, P. L.

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.