anesthetic

• anaesthetic (UK)
• anæsthetic (archaic)
• anesthesic
• anesthetical (adjective)

From Ancient Greek ἀναίσθητος (anaísthētos, “insensible”), from ἀν- (an-, “un-”) + αἰσθητικός (aisthētikós, “perceptible”).

• IPA^(key): /ˌænəsˈθɛtɪk/, (nonstandard) /ˌænəsˈtɛtɪk/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛtɪk

anesthetic (comparative more anesthetic, superlative most anesthetic) (American spelling, Canadian spelling)

1. Causing anesthesia; reducing pain sensitivity.
2. Insensate: unable to feel, or unconscious.
   • 1924, Maurice Walter Keatinge, Suggestion in Education:

     (I find that he is analgesic and anaesthetic; evidently he is in a state of passive somnambulism.)
     E. A. Did you feel anybody touch you?
     K. No. There's no one near me. (He continues laughing and talking. […] )

   • 1984, B. R. Hergenhahn, An Introduction to Theories of Personality, Prentice Hall:

     Though physically capable of attaining sex rewards, he is anesthetic; though capable of aggression, he is meek; though capable of affection, he is cold and unresponsive.

   • 2012, H.L. Mencken, Mencken Chrestomathy, Vintage, →ISBN, page 189:

     He is anesthetic to their theological and political enthusiasms. He finds himself an alien at their feasts of soul.

anesthetic (plural anesthetics)

1. (American spelling, medicine) A substance administered to reduce the perception of pain or to induce numbness for surgery and may render the recipient unconscious.
   • 1994, Anesthetics (Ophthalmic) (original version), Drugs.com:

     After a local anesthetic is applied to the eye, do not rub or wipe the eye until the anesthetic has worn off and feeling in the eye returns.

   • 2004, David B. Jacoby, R. M. Youngson, Encyclopedia of Family Health, Marshall Cavendish, page 91:

     Modern anesthetics can be divided into several different groups according to how and where they act to reduce pain.
     During premedication, the anesthetist may give a patient drugs that make him or her feel relaxed and drowsy before the actual general anesthetic is administered.

• "Anesthetics", 2010 MeSH, National Library of Medicine.

• anesthetic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• chainettes, entheastic