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Synonyms

sleeping pill

American  

noun

  1. a pill or capsule containing a drug for inducing sleep.

sleeping pill British  

noun

  1. a pill or tablet containing a sedative drug, such as a barbiturate, used to induce sleep

"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

Etymology

Origin of sleeping pill

First recorded in 1940–45

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.

After its introduction, it quickly became the most popular prescription sleeping pill on the market.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 1, 2022

When she got pregnant with her fifth baby, she’d been having trouble sleeping, so she took a sleeping pill her husband had recently bought over the counter on a trip to England.

From Slate • Jun. 1, 2022

Close to a sleeping pill in audio form.

From New York Times • May 28, 2021

North Korean officials, though, have repeatedly denied accusations that Warmbier was tortured, instead claiming that he had suffered from botulism and then slipped into a coma after taking a sleeping pill.

From Fox News • Apr. 26, 2019

I wish I had a sleeping pill to take, she thought, and looked again over her shoulder, compulsively, at the window, and then again at the door, and thought, Is it moving?

From "The Haunting of Hill House" by Shirley Jackson

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.