medicate

verb

med·​i·​cate ˈme-di-ˌkāt How to pronounce medicate (audio)
medicated; medicating

transitive verb

1
: to treat (someone or something) with or as if with medicine
medicate a condition
was medicated for pain/depression
… is happily living his life one day at a time since he stopped drinking and otherwise medicating himself …Charles Leerhsen
2
: to impregnate with a medicinal substance
medicated soap

Examples of medicate in a Sentence

The patient had been heavily medicated.
Recent Examples on the Web There is no law requiring accommodation for medicating on the job or protection from termination. Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee, 21 Feb. 2024 Starting in the nineteen-nineties, however, farmers began to medicate their livestock with drugs that were toxic to vultures. Meera Subramanian, The New Yorker, 31 Jan. 2024 Veterinarians will sometimes medicate dogs with prescription drugs, similar to ones that humans take for depression, including Zoloft and Xanax. Nicholas Rice, Peoplemag, 28 Jan. 2024 While somewhat effective treatments are available, many people do not get adequate care, in part due to fears over medicating while pregnant, writes the Guardian’s Hannah Devlin. Will Sullivan, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Dec. 2023 Yet these employees are tasked with bathing, toileting, medicating and safeguarding a population growing increasingly frail and likely to suffer from dementia or Alzheimer’s. Christopher Rowland, Washington Post, 17 Dec. 2023 They are guarded, medicated and fed by the same prison employees. Audrey Dutton, ProPublica, 13 Dec. 2023 The suit also claims that Bellino was hospitalized and medicated because of the assault. Rebecca Cohen, NBC News, 2 Nov. 2023 Many of them don’t like the side effects of drugs; some prefer being manic to being medicated. Kwame Anthony Appiah, New York Times, 28 Oct. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'medicate.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Latin medicatus, past participle of medicare to heal, from medicus

First Known Use

circa 1623, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler
The first known use of medicate was circa 1623

Dictionary Entries Near medicate

Cite this Entry

“Medicate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/medicate. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Medical Definition

medicate

transitive verb
med·​i·​cate ˈmed-ə-ˌkāt How to pronounce medicate (audio)
medicated; medicating
1
: to treat medicinally
2
: to impregnate with a medicinal substance
medicated soap

More from Merriam-Webster on medicate

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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