α. Middle English opii, Middle English–1500s opion, Middle English– opium, 1500s opio, 1500s opioum, 1500s oppium, 1600s opidum (transmission error).
β. 1600s offion, 1600s–1700s ophium.
opiumn.
/ˈəʊpɪəm/, U.S. /ˈoʊpiəm/ 1. † b. A juice resembling opium in composition or properties. Obsolete. rare.
a. A reddish-brown strongly scented addictive drug prepared from the thickened dried latex of the unripe capsules of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum, used illicitly as a narcotic, and occasionally medicinally as a sedative and analgesic.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > part of plant > plant substances > [noun] > fluid, juice, or sap
oozeeOE
sapOE
milkOE
slime?c1225
juicec1290
humoura1398
opiuma1398
watera1425
sop1513
afion1542
suc1551
suck1560
ab1587
lymph1682
blood1690
fluid1705
humidities1725
succus1771
plant milk1896
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > an intoxicating drug > [noun] > a) narcotic drug(s) > opium
poppyOE
opiec1385
opiuma1398
afion1542
meconium1601
mud1852
yen she1882
smoke1884
dope1886
hop1887
twang1898
weed1918
gow1922
yen1926
tar1935
gee1936
the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > sedatives, antispasmodics, etc. > [noun] > narcotic > plant-derived
earth appleOE
poppyOE
mandragoraOE
mandrakea1350
opiuma1398
mandglorye1483
mandragon?a1549
diacodium1564
dagga1670
diacodiate1684
black drop1801
Omnopon1909
Pantopon1909
a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add.) f. 242 Popy hatte papauer..Ther of comeþ Ius þat phisicians clepeþ opium oþer opion.
a1400 tr. Lanfranc Sci. Cirurgie (Ashm.) (1894) 254 (MED) If þe akynge go not awei..þan þou schalt do þeron a litil of opium.
?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 38v (MED) Opium dulleþ & confoundeþ þe siȝt.
c1475 ( Surg. Treat. in MS Wellcome 564 f. 72v (MED) Þou schalt remeuen awey akynge of a membre with medicyns þat ben stipticatif as opium.
1525 tr. H. von Brunschwig Noble Experyence Vertuous Handy Warke Surg. sig. Fiiij a/2 Whan the payne is grete, then it is nedefull to put therto a lytell Opium.
1551 W. Turner New Herball sig. E ij Agaynste the poyson of the iuice of poppye, called oppium.
1615 G. Sandys Relation of Journey 66 The Turkes are also incredible takers of Opium.
1662 J. Davies tr. A. Olearius Voy. & Trav. J. Albert de Mandelslo in Voy. & Trav. Ambassadors (1669) i. 29 He took Offion, or Opium.
1699 E. Ward London Spy I. vi. 7 Offer violence to your most pretious Lives, by taking..Opium.
1711 C. Lockyer Acct. Trade India 43 Ophium is always deliver'd three chests to a Bahar.
1751 H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 397 Lady Stafford used to say to her sister, ‘Well, child, I have come without my wit to-day;’ that is, she had not taken her opium.
1826 Lancet 13 May 198/2 Finely-powdered opium..should be rubbed over the eyebrows.
1875 H. C. Wood Treat. Therapeutics (1879) 221 Death occurs from opium, in the great majority of cases, by failure of the respiration.
1916 W. A. Du Puy Uncle Sam 124 The smuggling of opium and of Chinamen was known to go hand in hand.
1986 T. Mo Insular Possession xxii. 241 The Company, during the dying months of the year previous, has poured a veritable torrent of opium from its Indian Presidencies up the river and into Canton and its Province.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > liquid > [noun] > types of liquid generally > liquid naturally contained in anything > resembling opium
opium1815
1815 Sporting Mag. 46 63 A valuable paper on the opium obtained from the inspissated white juice [of the lettuce].
2. Extended uses.
a. Something which soothes or dulls the senses; a stupefying agent.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > inaction > disinclination to act or listlessness > [noun] > causing > one who or that which
torpedoa1593
opium1608
opiate1641
reposera1648
sedative1785
torporific1840
1608 Bp. T. Morton Preamble Incounter 33 Stupified with that Opium of implicit faith and blinde deuotion.
1658 Sir T. Browne Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall v. 74 There is no antidote against the Opium of time.
1742 H. Walpole Corr. (1837) I. lviii. 225 Whist has spread an universal opium over the whole nation.
1767 W. Harte Amaranth 187 I read not for instruction, but for ease; The opium of the pen is sure to please.
1848 Politics for People 27 May 58 We have used the Bible as if it was a mere special constable's handbook—an opium-dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they were being overloaded.
1881 T. S. Egan tr. H. Heine Ludwig Börne iv. 169 Hail to that religion which could pour a few sweet soporific drops into the bitter cup of the suffering human race, spiritual opium [Ger. geistiges Opium].
1939 G. B. Shaw Geneva i. 28 Karl Marx—Antichrist—said that the sweet and ennobling consolations of our faith are opium given to the poor.
1986 F. Iyayi Heroes xvi. 132 Meaningless slogans... To keep Nigeria one..Biafra must stay as the sun... It is all rubbish, an opium constantly fed to the working people.
b. the opium of the people (and variants) [in allusion to Karl Marx's phrase Opium des Volks (1844 K. Marx Zur Kritik der Hegel'schen Rechts-Philos., in Deutsch-Französische Jahrb. Feb. 72); compare quot. 1926] : something regarded as inducing a false sense of contentment amongst the general populace, esp. whilst diverting attention from more important matters or pursuits (originally and esp. with reference to religion). Cf. the opiate of the people at opiate n. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
society > faith > aspects of faith > religion > [noun]
lawa1225
laya1225
religion?c1225
ritec1480
the opium of the people1926
1926 H. J. Stenning tr. K. Marx Sel. Ess. 12 Religion is the moan of the oppressed creature, the sentiment of a heartless world, as it is the spirit of spiritless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
1951 N. Annan Leslie Stephen vii. 201 Kingsley might protest that religion was being used as opium for the people.
1968 Daily Tel. 13 Dec. (Colour Suppl.) 43/4 Drink, in other words, is becoming the opium of the people.
1971 G. Steiner In Bluebeard's Castle iv. 93 A good deal of classical music is, today, the opium of the good citizen.
1990 Marxism Today Aug. 34 Marxism has become the ‘opium of the marxists’, with all the trappings: scriptures and dogma, saints and scholastics, [etc.].
2001 Independent 1 May (Review section) 4/2 Sport, the new opium of the people, dulls the senses and diverts energy away from worthwhile outlets.
Compounds
C1. General attributive.
a.
opium cigarette n.
ΚΠ
1920 A. B. Baxter Parts Men Play xviii. 298 She..took to opium cigarettes, and then to heroin. She disappeared one night.
2000 Stage (Nexis) 6 Jan. 20 Mrs. Pepperpot..was like something Wilde's Lord Wotton might have dreamt up while smoking one of his opium cigarettes.
opium haul n.
ΚΠ
1974 Evening News 27 June 1/7 (headline) £250,000 opium haul.
2002 Agence France Presse (Nexis) 19 July (Internat. News section) The estimated street value of the opium haul was 11 million yen.
opium house n.
ΚΠ
1843 W. M. Lowrie Jrnl. 6 Oct. in Mem. (1849) v. 233 I have been made sick by the smell of it [sc. opium], in an opium house at Canton.
1888 R. Kipling Gate of Hundred Sorrows in Plain Tales from Hills 234 It was a pukka, respectable opium-house, and not one of those stifling, sweltering chandoo-khanas.
1984 J. G. Ballard Empire of Sun i. viii. 55 All the gambling parlours and opium houses..had closed.
opium liniment n.
ΚΠ
1892 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Opium, liniment of. See Linimentum opii.]
1903 N.E.D. at Opium Opium liniment.
opium pipe n.
ΚΠ
1779 T. Forrest Voy. New Guinea Pl. 27 (caption) Opium Pipe.
1811 W. Marsden Hist. Sumatra (ed. 3) 278 One of these [pills] being put into the small tube that projects from the side of the opium pipe.
1891 R. Kipling City Dreadful Night vi. 40 The lamp for the opium-pipe is the only one in the room.
1999 Asiaweek (Nexis) 29 Oct. (Arts & sciences section) 50 Foreign tourists in search of the fug of an opium pipe and cheap sex with young tribal girls.
opium plaster n.
ΚΠ
1848 H. Beasley Med. Formulary (ed. 4) 95 Emplastrum Iodinii Compositum... Iodide of potassium.., lead plaster.., opium plaster.
1892 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Opium plaster. See Emplastrum opii.
1998 China News (Nexis) 1 Oct. (News section) Two Thai workers were arrested..for allegedly trying to smuggle opium plaster from Thailand to Taiwan.
opium shop n.
ΚΠ
1838 W. H. Medhurst China iv. 79 Opium shops are as plentiful in some towns in China, as gin shops are in England.
1938 Far Eastern Surv. 7 288/1 On May 11 the Consolidated Tax Administration decided to permit the establishment of 300 opium dens and 100 opium shops in Peking.
2002 Jrnl. Southeast Asian Stud. (Nexis) 33 297 Opium shops where small quantities..of chandu..were sold.
opium trade n.
ΚΠ
1762 Gentleman's Mag. Apr. 172/1 Tho' we were offered the opium trade in the same manner as saltpetre, we would not accept it.
1840 H. Malcom Trav. 50/1 No person can describe the horrors of the opium trade.
1992 R. Gunesekera Monkfish Moon 96 He had no idea about..the ganja garden, the opium trade, the big black economy at the back of the house.
b. Objective.
(a)
opium addict n.
ΚΠ
1931 Internat. Jrnl. Ethics 41 520 Since all men are in greater or lesser degree patriots, their views and evaluations of national patriotism are often as clouded and confused as would be the views of an opium addict on the drug problem.
2001 J. Ellroy Cold Six Thousand lix. 304 His plan is to find human ‘test pilots’..to test maximum dosage levels on, such as junkies or opium addicts with opiate tolerances.
opium dealer n.
ΚΠ
1840 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. June 723/1 [The] Government..offer it [sc. war] as the only means in their power of keeping faith with the opium-dealers.
1873 N. Pike Sub-trop. Rambles 173 Mr. Ahong, a doctor and opium-dealer in the country.
1990 Washington Times (Nexis) 17 Jan. a1 The Chinese communists..executed opium dealers.
opium drinker n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > [noun] > drug-user > user of opium
opium-eater1785
opium taker1792
opium drinker1804
opium smoker1831
meconophagist1886
pill cooker1929
1804 W. Taylor in J. W. Robberds Mem. W. Taylor (1843) I. 484 Poor Burnett! Rickman writes me word he is turned opium-drinker.
2000 Times (Nexis) 22 Nov. (Features section) I Was a Teenage Opium Drinker: I was sinking a bottle a day of Dr. J. Collis Browne's Chlorodyne until my father noticed its high chloral and opium content and took it away from me.
opium-eater n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > [noun] > drug-user > user of opium
opium-eater1785
opium taker1792
opium drinker1804
opium smoker1831
meconophagist1886
pill cooker1929
1785 tr. F. de Tott Mem. I. 176 Teriaky Tcharchissy, the Market of Opium-eaters.
1867 Galaxy 4 May 26 When the opium-eater has swallowed or inhaled his drug, the effect is speedy.
2002 N.Y. Mag. 28 Aug. 36/2 Today's opium-eaters stuff chunks into emptied-out gelcaps and swallow.
opium smoker n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > [noun] > drug-user > user of opium
opium-eater1785
opium taker1792
opium drinker1804
opium smoker1831
meconophagist1886
pill cooker1929
1831 J. Downes in J. N. Reynolds Voy. U.S. Frigate Potomac (1835) App. 531 The pepper-boat exchanged her crew of fishermen at the river's mouth for a set of opium-smokers, rendered desperate by their habits.
1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 1 Apr. 6/4 The magistrate said that the accused had admitted ownership of the opium smoking paraphernalia, and to being an opium smoker himself.
2000 R. Bingham Lightning on Sun 43 Coats was a juicer and known opium smoker.
opium taker n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > [noun] > drug-user > user of opium
opium-eater1785
opium taker1792
opium drinker1804
opium smoker1831
meconophagist1886
pill cooker1929
1792 D. Stewart Elem. Philos. Human Mind (1853) i. v. 181 Account of the Opium-takers at Constantinople.
1887 Science 8 Apr. 329/2 Cocaine..finds in the opium-taker a peculiar condition that specially favors its ill effects.
1992 Economist 18 Jan. 61/1 The first known law to punish opium takers in what is now Thailand was written in 1360.
(b)
opium-drinking n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1883 Harper's Mag. Nov. 961/2 The..husband of an opium-drinking wife.
1963 F. L. K. Hsu Clan, Caste, & Club iii. 35 He turned from opium-drinking, one form of institutionalized retreat, to ‘goddess-worship’.
opium-eating n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1821 T. De Quincey Confessions Eng. Opium-eater in London Mag. Sept. 294 If opium-eating be a sensual pleasure..it is no less true that I have struggled against this fascinating enthralment with a religious zeal.
1867 Galaxy 4 May 25 We are wont to speak of ‘opium-eating’ as if this were the only way of using the narcotic.
1997 Washington Post (Nexis) 8 Mar. (Style section) c1 Berlioz..is often charicatured as a poetry-drunk, opium-eating, Heaven-storming Romantic.
opium-smoking n. and adj.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > [noun] > taking opium
opium-smoking1835
opiophagy1878
meconophagism1886
1835 Aurora 7 Jan. 360/3 The present Emperor..has been described as being totally incapacitated..through the excesses to which he has carried the debilitating practice of opium smoking.
1938 N. Marsh Artists in Crime (U.S.) xiii. 202 Fox had found Malmsley's opium-smoking impedimenta.
1989 A. Aird 1990 Good Pub Guide 815 In the front room, see if you can spot the opium-smoking hints modelled into the fireplace.
opium taking n. and adj.
ΚΠ
1821 T. De Quincey Confessions Eng. Opium-eater in London Mag. Oct. 355/2 The whole art and mystery of opium-taking.
1908 Westm. Gaz. 22 Feb. 7/1 Cautain Schlumberger..controverted all the arguments based by the defence on the prisoner's opium-taking habits and on his youth.
1990 B. Bryson Mother Tongue ix. 142 Thomas de Quincey, in between bouts of opium taking, found time to attack the expression what on earth.
c. Instrumental.
opium-drowsed adj.
ΚΠ
1895 Daily News 27 Sept. 6/5 The opium-drowsed and terror-stricken Dr. Marshall.
opium-fumed adj.
ΚΠ
1903 N.E.D. at Opium Opium-fumed.
opium poisoning n.
ΚΠ
1854 N.Y. Jrnl. Pharmacy 3 546 The symptoms continued to improve till two a.m., when all indications of opium poisoning had disappeared.
1878 tr. H. W. von Ziemssen et al. Cycl. Pract. Med. XVII. 875 Chronic opium-poisoning, opiophagy,..belong to the category of diseases which are almost incurable.
1993 Pittsburgh Post-Gaz. (Nexis) 2 May (Entertainment section) e4 Judge Samuel Stafford slumps in his seat and shortly after dies, the victim of opium poisoning.
opium-shattered adj.
ΚΠ
1854 T. De Quincey Eng. Mail Coach (rev. ed.) in Select. Grave & Gay II. 338 My frail opium-shattered self.
C2. † opium-smoke v. Obsolete transitive to bring into a specified condition by opium-smoking.Apparently an isolated use.
opium alkaloid n. any of the narcotic, analgesic, and addictive alkaloids derived from opium, such as morphine, codeine, and papaverine.
ΚΠ
1854 J. W. Draper Kane's Elements Chem. (Amer. ed.) 628 It contains codeine, and sometimes others of the opium alkaloïds.
1934 C. C. Steele Introd. Plant Biochem. xx. 230 The opium alkaloids can be divided into the papaverine sub-group, which contains the isoquinoline nucleus, and the morphine sub-group, which contains a potential isoquinoline group in a condensed ring system.
1990 Indian Jrnl. Pharmaceut. Sci. 52 276 A method for the routine analysis of major opium alkaloids, morphine, codeine, thebaine, papaverine and narcotine, in poppy straw samples is described.
opium-cellar n. rare a cellar frequented by opium smokers.
ΚΠ
1883 Overland Monthly Nov. 455 During the latter part of the night we went through the slums of Chinatown: into the alleys, the opium-cellars, the crowded houses.
1911 O. Onions Widdershins 278 He took me into an opium-cellar within a stone's throw of Oxford Street.
opium den n. a room, house, or club frequented by opium smokers.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > [noun] > place for injecting drugs > place for taking opium
opium den1843
opium joint1882
hop joint1887
hop-pad1946
1843 W. M. Lowrie Jrnl. 6 Oct. in Mem. (1849) v. 233 I have held my breath as I passed the opium dens in Macao.
1882 J. D. McCabe N.Y. 590 Here are the headquarters of the Mongolians, their..opium dens.
1988 F. Kaplan Dickens xiv. 543 He went with Fields to visit an opium den, where curls of hallucinatory smoke rose from long-stemmed pipes.
opium dream n. a dream experienced during an opium-induced sleep; also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sleeping and waking > sleep > dream > [noun] > induced by drugs
opium dream1821
hop-dream1896
1821 Ld. Byron Don Juan: Canto IV xix. 80 This is in others a factitious state, An opium dream of too much youth and reading.
1922 W. S. Maugham Writer's Notebk. (1949) 202 Singapore: Opium Dream. I saw a road lined on each side with tall poplars.
1991 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 28 Mar. 8/2 Sherlock Holmes at least had his violin and his opium dreams to ease his cut-glass mind and restore his humanity.
opium habit n. the habit of eating or smoking opium.
ΚΠ
1868 H. B. Day (title) The opium habit, with suggestions as to the remedy.
1892 H. Campbell Darkness & Daylight xxviii. 569 ‘I've got the yen-yen (opium habit) the worst way’, said one woman, ‘and must have my pipe every night’.
1995 Magill's Surv. of Cinema (Electronic ed.) 15 June He..sold her into a form of discretely suggested prostitution in order to feed his own opium habit.
opium joint n. North American colloquial = opium den n. (see joint n.1 14a).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > [noun] > place for injecting drugs > place for taking opium
opium den1843
opium joint1882
hop joint1887
hop-pad1946
1882 H. H. Kane Opium-smoking 5 The principal places, known as ‘opium joints’, are in Mott, Pell, and Park streets.
1926 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 4 July 6/2 Charged with being inmates of an opium joint in Theatre Alley, Lee and Jim, Chinese, were each fined $15.
2000 Vancouver Sun (Nexis) 18 Sept. (News section) b1 In 1915, Vancouver police arrested 301 men for the offence of being found in an opium joint.
opium lamp n. a lamp with which opium is heated prior to smoking.
ΚΠ
1871 Appleton's Jrnl. 6 720/2 Upon it [sc. the bedstead] were half a dozen..men lying around a Japanese tea-board with the opium-lamp.
1897 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. II. 885 Engaged in rolling and heating in their opium-lamps treacly pellets of opium.
1993 Straits Times (Nexis) 31 Dec. (Home section) 21 Central Narcotics Bureau officers..found him with an opium lamp, three needles, a scraper and a container with four small packets of opium.
opium plant n. = opium poppy n.
ΚΠ
1790 Calcutta Chron. 7 Jan. Some fine salutary showers of rain fell, which have brought the opium plant surprizingly forward.
1868 G. E. Post in W. Smith Dict. Bible (rev. ed.) I. 862/2 No plant is more common in the fields than the Papaver Syriacum, which is a plant as the same genus as the opium plant, Papaver somniferum.
2000 Jrnl. Forensic Sci. 45 552 The morphine produced in the opium plant.
ΚΠ
1870 C. Dickens Edwin Drood i. 2 The woman has opium-smoked herself into a strange likeness of the Chinaman.
opium smuggler n. (a) a person who smuggles opium; (b) a ship used to smuggle opium.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > trader > [noun] > smuggler > of certain goods
owler1690
runner1719
flasker1816
opium smuggler1841
rum runner1917
dope-smuggler1937
buttlegger1945
stuffer1983
swallower1983
1841 J. Sturge Let. 30 Sept. in Visit to U.S. in 1841 (1842) p. lxii To take under his protection one of the most extensive opium smugglers.
1975 M. Stern in L. M. Alcott Behind Mask p. xxi William Henry Thomes..had sailed aboard an opium smuggler that plied between China and California.
2001 Monthly Rev. (Nexis) 53 29 Characterizing the people of Afghanistan is unreal and applies only to a very limited number.
opium war n. a war fought over the opium trade; spec. that waged by Britain against China (1839–42) following China's attempt to prohibit the importation of opium; (also) a later war (1856–60) waged against China by Britain and France.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > war > types of war > [noun] > other specific war
Punic War1556
Vandal war1613
American Civil War1775
Seven Years War1775
Revolutionary Wara1784
Peninsular war1811
Great War1815
Mormon war1833
opium war1841
the Thirty Years' War1841
the Thirty Years' War1842
Mexican War1846
Napoleonic War1850
Crimean War1854
Hundred Years War1874
Balkan war1881
Boer War1883
Winter War1939
Six Day War1967
Yom Kippur War1973
Gulf War1981
Falklands conflict1982
1841 T. Moore Poet. Wks IX. 282 More stirring far Than the'Opium or the Sulphur war.
1969 V. G. Kiernan Lords of Human Kind v. 148 The West resorted to force, and the Opium Wars of 1840–42 and 1856–60..inducted China into..the comity of nations.
1985 J. M. Roberts Triumph of West xi. 333 British arrogance and precipitateness led to the declaration by the Chinese government of..the ‘Opium Wars’.
C3. figurative (in sense 2a). rare.† opium sermon n. Obsolete† opium sky n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
?a1645 A. Stafford Just Apol. in Life Blessed Virgin (1860) p. xxxiii Nothing..is so irkesome to me, as to heare their cold Opium Sermons.
ΚΠ
1797–1803 J. Foster Jrnl. in Life & Corr. J. Foster (1846) I. 196 There is an opium sky stretched over all the world, which continually rains soporifics.
Derivatives
ˈopiumate n. and adj. (a) n. a person addicted to the use of opium; (b) adj. opiate (opiate n. 1).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > drug addiction or craving > [noun] > drug addict > addicted to opium
pipe1779
pipe-fiend1889
opiumate1894
hop fiend1898
hophead1911
hoppy1922
1894 Westm. Gaz. 23 July 3/2 The opiumate, if accused of the habit, usually pleads guilty.
2002 Presss Assoc. (Nexis) 6 Mar. (Home News section) He had a long history of opiumate abuse.
ˈopiumist n. a person who favours the use of opium (opposed to anti-opiumist).
ΚΠ
1882 St. James's Gaz. 17 Mar. 5 The anti-opiumists..must ask for the absolute prohibition..of opium culture.]
1893 St. James's Gaz. 29 June 1/3 The Anti-Opium Crusade. Fad or Fact?—By an Opiumist.
1999 P. Matthews Cannabis Culture (2000) xi. 190 Victoria Berridge and Griffith Edwards..describe the ‘anti-opiumists’ as an élite group, lacking the mass base of the earlier campaigns against the Corn Laws or slavery.]
ˈopiumite n. = opiumist n.
ΚΠ
1843 Asiatic Jrnl. & Monthly Reg. 40 288 The struggle..ended in the discomfiture of the opiumites.
1890 Pall Mall Gaz. 8 Apr. 7/2 There are two distinct schools..—thieves who operate with opium, and those who use chloroform. The opiumites carry on their nefarious business in railway trains or other for the time being secluded places.
1903 N.E.D. at Opium Opiumite.
ˈopiumless adj. that does not contain opium.
ΚΠ
1892 Daily News 1 Nov. 6/5 The serious risks to infant life and the serious harm to adults that might ensue from the administration of ever-increasing doses of ‘paregoric’, not known to be opiumless and subsequent innocent administration of similar and perhaps deadly doses of true paregoric.
1903 N.E.D. at Opium Opiumless.
2001 Times of India (Nexis) 27 Mar. Scientists..have..finally succeeded in developing an opiumless and alkaloid free poppy.
ˈopiumy adj. containing or resembling opium.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medicines or physic > medicines for specific purpose > sedatives, antispasmodics, etc. > [adjective] > sedative, narcotic, or hypnotic
stupefactive?a1425
sedativec1425
narcotic1526
opiate1543
narcotical1587
soporiferous1601
hypnotic1625
soporative1629
pacative1664
opiative1674
opiatic1678
thebaic1746
soporific1775
narcotico-acrid1815
depressant1887
opiumy1891
1891 M. M. Dowie Girl in Karpathians xv. 196 Poppies, from whose sleepy heads an opiumy oil is made.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
opiumv.
/ˈəʊpɪəm/, U.S. /ˈoʊpiəm/ rare.
transitive. To treat with opium; to bring to a specified condition by treatment with opium.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > medical treatment > treatment by medicine or drug > treat with drugs [verb (transitive)] > treat with specific drugs or medicines
tartar1647
blue-pill1824
mercurialize1825
opium1825
treacle1839
tartar-emeticize1844
quinine1858
quininize1860
cinchonize1863
veratrize1891
oxalate1894
tuberculinize1897
citrate1903
strychninize1934
juice1973
1825 W. Hone Every-day Bk. (1826) I. 900 The bitten person, unless opiumed to death,..will..die in unspeakable agony.
1995 M. Carr Mai i. 40 I dragged her from the cliffs,..howlin' she couldn't live without the nine-fingered fisherman, opiumed up to the eyeballs.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2004; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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