opiate

From Middle English opiate, from Medieval Latin opiātus.

• (UK)
  • (adjective, noun) enPR: ōʹpē-ət, IPA^(key): /ˈəʊpi.ət/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

  • (verb) enPR: ōʹpē-āt', IPA^(key): /ˈəʊpiˌeɪt/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US)
  • (adjective, noun) enPR: ōʹpē-ət, IPA^(key): /ˈoʊpi.ət/
  • (verb) enPR: ōʹpē-āt, IPA^(key): /ˌoʊpieɪt/

opiate (not comparable)

1. Relating to, resembling, or containing opium.
2. (pharmacology) Soporific; inducing sleep or sedation.
3. Deadening; causing apathy or dullness.

opiate (plural opiates)

1. (pharmacology) A drug, hormone or other substance derived from or related to opium.
2. Something that dulls the senses and induces a false and unrealistic sense of contentment.
   • 1692, Richard Bentley, [A Confutation of Atheism] (please specify the sermon), London: [Thomas Parkhurst; Henry Mortlock], published 1692–1693:

     They chose atheism as an opiate.

   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Romance and Reality. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], OCLC 24531354, page 230:

     The music—the fragrance of the flowers, whose odour was exhaling in the now falling dew—the languor of recent exertion—the sense of past dangers and present security—operated on Beatrice like the first and delicious stage of an opiate.

• opioid

opiate (third-person singular simple present opiates, present participle opiating, simple past and past participle opiated)

1. (transitive) To treat with an opiate drug.

• codeine
• morphine
• papaverine
• thebaine

opiāte

1. vocative masculine singular of opiātus

opiate m

1. locative singular of opiatas
2. vocative singular of opiatas