tranquilize

English

Alternative forms

• tranquillize, tranquilise, tranquillise

Etymology

From Middle French tranquiliser. Analyzable as tranquil +‎ -ize

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈtɹæŋkwɪlaɪz/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Hyphenation: tran‧quil‧ize

Verb

tranquilize (third-person singular simple present tranquilizes, present participle tranquilizing, simple past and past participle tranquilized)

1. (transitive) To calm (a person or animal) or put them to sleep using a tranquilizer dart.

   The escaped lion was finally tracked down, tranquilized, and safely returned to the zoo.

   Synonyms: dart, sedate

   • 1962, Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest‎, New York: Dial, page 255:

     Miss Ratched shall line us all against the wall, where we’ll face the terrible maw of a muzzle-loading shotgun which she has loaded with Miltowns! Thorazines! Libriums! Stelazines! And with a wave of her sword, blooie! Tranquilize all of us completely out of existence.

   • 1962, Rachel Carson, chapter 2, in Silent Spring‎, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 13:

     When the public protests, confronted with some obvious evidence of damaging results of pesticide applications, it is fed little tranquilizing pills of half truth.

2. (transitive, now literary) To make (something or someone) tranquil.

   Synonyms: appease, calm, pacify

   • 1779, Frances Burney, Evelina, Dublin: Price, Corcoran et al., Volume 2, Letter 14, p. 87,

     with words of sweetest kindness and consolation, he soothed and tranquilised me.

   • 1818, [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, →OCLC:

     […] I feel my heart glow with an enthusiasm which elevates me to heaven, for nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose,—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

   • 1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 13, in My Bondage and My Freedom. , New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan , →OCLC:

     This threat, the reader may well suppose, was not very tranquilizing to my feelings.

   • 1865, G. O. Trevelyan, chapter 5, in Cawnpore‎, London: Macmillan, page 322:

     The column was placed under the orders of Major Renaud, who pushed up the road; fighting as occasion offered; tranquillizing the country by the very simple expedient of hanging everybody who showed signs of insubordination […]

   • 1931, E. F. Benson, chapter 4, in Mapp and Lucia‎:

     Supported by an impregnable sense of justice but still dangerously fuming, Lucia went back to her garden-room, to tranquillize herself with an hour’s practice on the new piano.

   • 1995, Rohinton Mistry, chapter 11, in A Fine Balance‎, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, page 497:

     But time had tranquillized Dina’s worries about the landlord.

3. (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To become tranquil.

   Synonyms: calm down, relax

   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter I”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: , volume V, London: S Richardson;  , →OCLC, page 11:

     Seest thou not, that this unseasonable gravity is admitted to quell the palpitations of this unmanageable heart? But still it will go on with its boundings. I’ll try, as I ride in my chariot, to tranquillize.

4. (transitive) To dart (a person or animal) with a sedative

   The bear should go down several minutes after being tranquilized.

   • 2004 March 15, Laura Hancock, Deseret News‎:

     Moose should only be down about 15 to 20 minutes after being tranquilized.

Synonyms

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Portuguese

Verb

tranquilize

1. inflection of tranquilizar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative