soporific

[sop-uh-rif-ik, soh-puh-]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR soporific ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

causing or tending to cause sleep.

pertaining to or characterized by sleep or sleepiness; sleepy; drowsy.

noun

something that causes sleep, as a medicine or drug.

Origin of soporific

1655–65; < Latin sopor sopor + -i- + -fic; compare French soporifique

Related formssop·o·rif·i·cal·ly, adverban·ti·sop·o·rif·ic, adjective, nounnon·sop·or·if·ic, adjective, nounun·sop·o·rif·ic, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for soporific

anesthetic, calming, sedative, opiate, hypnotic, narcotic, deadening, balmy, drowsy, dull, somnolent, soothing, nodding, slumberous, somniferous, dozy, mesmerizing, numbing, snoozy

Examples from the Web for soporific

Contemporary Examples of soporific

“Gently rolling hills” roll not-so-gently under my tires, but the English countryside scenery is soporific.
Biking With the Bard
Kara Cutruzzula
December 28, 2014
A travelogue of the drug-testing labs at Pfizer, Eli Lilly, or GlaxoSmithKline would likely be soporific.
Weed Reads: The 10 Best Books on Pot
Roger Roffman
April 27, 2014
Yet Diana, with its soporific romance and awful dialogue, is a colossal bore.
Princess Diana Was the Girlfriend From Hell. Why Is This Movie So Boring?
Tina Brown
November 4, 2013
Unlike other soporific cabinet secretaries, Homeland Security director is a position people really do care about.
The Case for Ray Kelly as Obama’s New Homeland Security Director
John Avlon
July 12, 2013
The premise is this: turkey is chock-full of a soporific essential amino acid, tryptophan, one of the 22 essential amino acids.
Eat Turkey All You Want! It’s Not Going to Put You to Sleep
Kent Sepkowitz
November 22, 2012

Historical Examples of soporific

The first pages of most of these old papers are as soporific as a bed of poppies.
Old News
Nathaniel Hawthorne
He had made up his mind that he might have to spend days in this soporific hamlet.
In Apple-Blossom Time
Clara Louise Burnham
The soporific, thwarted in its effect for a moment, redoubled its power over him.
The Knight of Malta
Eugene Sue
I shall administer a soporific to these men, and then shall extinguish the light.
Roger the Bold
F. S. Brereton
The restlessness of the sea acts as a soporific on jangled nerves.
The Journal of a Disappointed Man
Wilhelm Nero Pilate Barbellion

British Dictionary definitions for soporific

soporific

adjective Also: archaic soporiferous

inducing sleep

drowsy; sleepy

noun

a drug or other agent that induces sleep

Derived Formssoporifically, adverb

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

Word Origin and History for soporific

adj.

"tending to produce sleep," 1680s, from French soporifique (17c.), formed in French from Latin sopor (genitive soporis) "deep sleep" (see sopor). As a noun from 1722. Earlier as an adjective was soporiferous (1580s as "characterized by excessive sleep," c.1600 as "soporific").

soporific in Medicine

soporific

[sŏp′ə-rĭf′ĭk, sō′pə-]

adj.

Inducing or tending to induce sleep.

Sleepy; drowsy.