dormitive

Etymology

French dormitif, from the verb dormir (“to sleep”)

Adjective

dormitive (comparative more dormitive, superlative most dormitive)

1. Causing sleep.
   • 1916, John Dewey, Democracy and Education:

     But "imitation" throws no light upon why they so act; it repeats the fact as an explanation of itself. It is an explanation of the same order as the famous saying that opium puts men to sleep because of its dormitive power.

   • 1673, Molière (Jean-Baptiste Poquelin), Le Malade Imaginere, Act III, Interlude iii:

     Quare Opium facit dormire: ... Quia est in eo Virtus dormitiva. (Why Opium produces sleep: ... Because there is in it a dormitive power.)

Noun

dormitive (plural dormitives)

1. A medicine to promote sleep; a soporific or opiate.

Further reading

• dormitive in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• dormitive in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
• dormitive at OneLook Dictionary Search

Adjective

dormitive

1. feminine singular of dormitif