tranquilizer
Americannoun
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a person or thing that tranquilizes.
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a drug that has a sedative or calming effect without inducing sleep.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of tranquilizer
First recorded in 1790–1800; tranquilize + -er 1
Explanation
A medication that's used to relax patients is called a tranquilizer. If someone suffers from severe anxiety, their doctor might prescribe a tranquilizer. The word tranquilizer is commonly used for anti-anxiety or anti-psychotic drugs, but it's not the term most medical professionals use. They are much more likely to use sedative, neuroleptic, or anxiolytic for a calming medication. Tranquilizer, from tranquility or "the state of being calm," was first used for sedatives in 1824, and for anti-anxiety drugs in 1954.
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:
The young intern who shot us with a tranquilizer dart and then inserted that inexact analysis apologizes.
From Slate ● Jun. 13, 2026
You’d have needed a tranquilizer gun to keep him from chasing after the next story, and the next, and he was still telling stories until his death in 2015.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2025
Veterinarians and rangers held the rhino’s head above water with a rope to stop it from drowning while a tranquilizer reversal drug took effect, and the rhino was released.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
Officers scrambled to a veterinarian to get a tranquilizer gun and doses of the sedative, only to find that they did not need them.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 27, 2023
Using a tranquilizer gun, they dropped him from the tree into a net.
From "Camp Panda" by Catherine Thimmesh
The bears ultimately returned to her home before tranquilizers were used.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 27, 2023
“Very, very, very stressful,” Witalij Miskow, 45, says of the night terrors he’s fighting with tranquilizers and therapy at a mental health treatment center for soldiers on the outskirts of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 30, 2022
"You should not swallow informational tranquilizers," Mikhail Khodaryonok, a retired colonel, told the "60 Minutes" talk show on Rossiya-1 hosted by Olga Skabeyeva, one of the most pro-Kremlin journalists on television.
From Reuters ● May 17, 2022
Fish and Wildlife officers responded as well, armed with tranquilizers, and successfully subdued the animal, which passed out with its head in the sink and a broken screen on the floor below.
From Fox News ● May 26, 2021
Can’t we get him some tranquilizers or something?
From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick
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.
