tranquilize

tranquilizeverb/ˈtɹæŋkwɪlaɪ̯z/

• 1

  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.
  • 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.
• 2

  literaryTo make (something or someone) tranquil.

  • 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.
  • […] 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.
• 3

  obsoleterareTo become tranquil.

  • 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

  To dart (a person or animal) with a sedative

  • The bear should go down several minutes after being tranquilized.
  • Moose should only be down about 15 to 20 minutes after being tranquilized.