etherize

[ ee-thuh-rahyz ]

verb (used with object)

, e·ther·ized, e·ther·iz·ing.

1. Medicine/Medical. to put under the influence of ether; anesthetize.
2. to render groggy or numb, as if by an anesthetic.

etherize

/ ˈiːθəˌraɪz /

verb

1. obsolete.
   tr to subject (a person) to the anaesthetic influence of ether fumes; anaesthetize

Derived Forms

• ˈetherˌizer, noun
• ˌetheriˈzation, noun

Other Words From

• ether·i·zation noun
• ether·izer noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of etherize¹

First recorded in 1740–50; ether + -ize

Example Sentences

Her boyfriend, a grade older, is “laid out on a bed, like a patient etherized upon a table.”

From New York Times

The pleasure this writing affords — its plushness, patient description, etherizing beauty — does not stem from its closeness to life, however.

From New York Times

The patient, a woman in her twenties, lay etherized upon a table.

From The New Yorker

It hit him in their bedroom on a summer day in 2016: an unfamiliar, etherizing wave.

From Washington Post

Eliot’s “Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” which of course begins, “Shall we go then, you and I, while the evening is spread out across the sky like a patient etherized upon a table.”

From Salon

Related Words

• desensitize
• impair