narcotize
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to subject to or treat with a narcotic; stupefy.
-
to make dull; stupefy; deaden the awareness of.
He had used liquor to narcotize his anxieties.
verb (used without object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of narcotize
First recorded in 1835–45; narcot(ic) + -ize
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.
See Examples For:
Actually the soaps do not kill bacteria, they permanently "narcotize" the germs.
From Time Magazine Archive
They appeared to me, though, as if pursuing something beyond Gain, which should narcotize or stimulate them to forget that man's life was a vain going to and fro.
From The Morgesons by Stoddard, Elizabeth
By day and by night I was surrounded with influence intended to beguile me from the past, to narcotize memory, to make me in reality the heartless, soulless, scoffing creature that I certainly seem.
From Infelice by Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
And nevertheless he desired at present to stay in it, even though for a few days, in order that he might gaze longer upon Panna Marynia and, as he called it, "further narcotize himself."
From Whirlpools A Novel of Modern Poland by Sienkiewicz, Henryk
They fascinate even when they excite, and soothe and narcotize in the communication of their subtle power.
From A Trooper Galahad by King, Charles
Alongside the legendary Port Arthur duo UGK, rappers like Z-Ro, Lil’ Keke, Lil’ Troy, Paul Wall, and Lil’ Flip concocted a narcotized bang and sparkle that one can still hear in hip-hop.
From The New Yorker ● May 20, 2019
The excellent Ms. Rogers returns as Harry’s frowzy helpmeet, a woman narcotized by monotony, who can still put on the dog for a handsome stranger.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2018
Sometimes it seems to me that young people are, indeed, entirely too quiet, too narcotized by gadgets, games and irrelevancies to notice the world is going to heck around them.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 14, 2014
We are a lazy and narcotized culture and it is hard to not just go to sleep.
From Salon ● May 10, 2013
Thus, when he saw acts which his reason must have told him were indefensible he was still narcotized by this conception of some new standard of right.
From New York Times, Current History, Vol 1, Issue 1 From the Beginning to March, 1915 With Index by Various
His treatments included electroconvulsive therapy, during which doctors use electric currents to spark a brain seizure, and also narcotizing drugs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 24, 2021
That’s where “White Noise,” the theater auteur Daniel Fish’s personal distillation of Don DeLillo’s 1985 novel, could be seen during the weekend — hypnotizing, narcotizing, infuriating and, on occasion, seriously waking up its audiences.
From New York Times ● Sep. 22, 2019
This deeply autobiographical novel recounts growing up gay in rural France, where the men and women scuff and strain against economic morbidity, class invisibility and narcotizing boredom.
From New York Times ● May 25, 2017
For the NFL, the powerful narcotizing effects of gamification don’t stop there.
From Slate ● Oct. 9, 2013
An instant alleviation and narcotizing of pain, as is usual in the case of tooth ache, is sufficient for him even in the severest suffering.
From Human, All Too Human A Book for Free Spirits by Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm
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.
