sedate
Americanadjective
verb (used with object)
-
sedates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
sedated,
past participle, past
-
sedating
present participle
adjective
-
habitually calm and composed in manner; serene
-
staid, sober, or decorous
verb
Synonym Usage
See staid.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
sedatesimple
-
sedatessimple
-
have sedatedperfect
-
has sedatedperfect
-
am sedatingprogressive
-
are sedatingprogressive
-
is sedatingprogressive
-
have been sedatingperfect progressive
-
has been sedatingperfect progressive
Past
-
sedatedsimple
-
had sedatedperfect
-
was sedatingprogressive
-
were sedatingprogressive
-
had been sedatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sedate
First recorded in 1640–50; from Latin sēdātus (past participle of sēdāre “to allay, quieten”); akin to sedēre “to sit”; see sit 1
Explanation
Sedate means to be calm, but if a doctor sedates you it means you've been administered a tranquilizing drug. Most surgeries require some form of sedation, but to be sedate in day-to-day life means composed, quiet, and serene. Not necessarily unconscious. To be sedate when dining with the Queen means that you behaved with dignity and solemnity. To be sedated when dining with the Queen means that you were face down in the bread pudding and drooling onto the tablecloth. The medical sense of the word is to be tranquilized, either to calm your nerves after a shock or in preparation for surgery. Socially, to be sedate is to be serene, quiet, and composed.
Vocabulary lists containing sedate
A Separate Peace
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Mellow Out: Synonyms for "Calm"
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
National Nurses Week: Tasks and Equipment
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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:
Patterson's trial last year drew podcasters, film crews and true crime fans to a courthouse in the rural town of Morwell, a sedate hamlet in Victoria better known for its prize-winning roses.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
By the 1870s his work—often passively comfortable with the standard paysage, or horizontal format, and entranced by distant spectacles like sunsets or mountaintops—began to seem sedate to serious viewers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
Nursing homes have a powerful incentive to sedate residents, and comparatively few people are watching.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 7, 2026
There was another two-star review from the Guardian's Arifa Akbar, who said the show's atmosphere is "sedate", with "no peril whatsoever".
From BBC ● Feb. 18, 2026
After we ate, we started to drift into a sedate sleepiness again.
From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall
Patients with early-stage Alzheimer’s or mild cognitive impairment will quickly find that lecanemab is not a neurological medication that sedates, stimulates or dampens pain.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 27, 2023
To determine if a sturgeon is female, a worker first sedates the fish in a trough with a small electric current.
From The Guardian ● May 14, 2018
At his local bar, for example, an imitation Irish pub, the bartender sedates the customers by showing them sumo wrestling highlights.
From New York Times ● Jan. 2, 2013
Later, as the news spreads with the virus and terror propels the population into rabid belligerence, the movie sedates its pulse, softens its focus and threatens to become a straightfaced Zombieland.
From Time ● Sep. 4, 2011
A careful, perhaps too conventional interpretation of a play that sheds less light on its subject than it does on the mind of Playwright Bernard Shaw, who sometimes dates but never sedates.
From Time Magazine Archive
Japanese authorities have sedated and captured a black bear, days after it was spotted roaming around a city near Tokyo.
From BBC ● Jun. 9, 2026
Others worry about the invasiveness of a colonoscopy and undergoing anesthesia or are too sick with a chronic disease to be sedated.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 4, 2026
In a recent study, researchers placed electrodes across the scalps of sedated patients, capturing their brain-wave data.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
In October, a Tijuana man was indicted after officers found two emaciated and potentially sedated orange-fronted parakeets stuffed in his underwear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 25, 2026
Word came down that Lola, sedated by the doctor, was at last asleep, and the news provided temporary relief.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
In the operating room, before they began sedating me, I heard the surgeon enter the room, take a look at the pacemaker, and pronounce that it was the wrong model.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 13, 2024
"We know that nursing homes with lower staffing levels use more antipsychotics. These medications may be compensating for understaffing by sedating residents instead of having adequate staff to support their needs," said Travers.
From Science Daily ● Apr. 24, 2024
The process of sedating and capturing a rhino is complex and risky.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 11, 2023
He descends into an aging manhole in Tennessee to provide sewer maintenance and helps control the Texas feral cat population by sedating, shaving and neutering two dozen kitties.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 12, 2022
What is then given should have the power of sedating the nervous fluids, while it disseminates through the viscera the elements of nutrition.
From A Treatise on Foreign Teas Abstracted From An Ingenious Work, Lately Published, Entitled An Essay On the Nerves by Hugh Smith
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.
