Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Inducing or tending to induce sleep.
- adjective Drowsy.
- noun A drug or other substance that induces sleep; a hypnotic.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Tending to produce sleep.
- noun Anything which causes sleep, as certain medicines.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Causing sleep; tending to cause sleep; soporiferous.
- noun A medicine, drug, plant, or other agent that has the quality of inducing sleep; a narcotic.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun Something
inducing sleep , especially a drug. - noun figuratively Something
boring ordull . - adjective Tending to
induce sleep . - adjective figuratively
boring ,dull
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective inducing mental lethargy
- noun a drug that induces sleep
- adjective sleep inducing
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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There is a misunderstanding about the meaning of the word soporific and when Thompson explains it to McDonald they both enjoy a laugh, at themselves mostly, they let go a little, and it is one of the most human and intimate moments in the film up until that point.
OnMilwaukee.com 2008
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Could anyone ever consider terrific a delivery best called soporific?
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It may be remembered that Archibald, in what we may term his soporific period, had manifested a strong, although entirely irrational, repugnance to this east chamber.
Archibald Malmaison Julian Hawthorne 1890
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The first half could best be described as soporific, the encounter displaying all the characteristics of a scrap that had the spectre of relegation very much at the banquet.
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph 2010
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"soporific" -- and in explaining Santayana's eventual road to prestige
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It was part of the reason that my vocabulary at age three included the word 'soporific'.
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It was part of the reason that my vocabulary at age three included the word 'soporific'.
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The best I can say about the first half of the performance is that I don't often get to use the word "soporific" in casual conversation.
Baltimore Fiddle Fair lithera 2007
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While he quarreled with descriptions of his speaking style as "soporific," Kerry tacitly acknowledged that he failed to connect with enough voters on a personal level.
'I'M GOING TO LEARN' 2007
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How about it Rudy - buy me a pastrami sandwich for every time I call a Romney speech "soporific"?
"A License to Blog?" Ann Althouse 2007
nkocharh commented on the word soporific
"It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is 'soporific.'
"I have never felt sleepy after eating lettuces; but then I am not a rabbit.
"They certainly had a very soporific effect upon the Flopsy Bunnies!"
-Beatrix Potter, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies.
December 12, 2006
jeffazi commented on the word soporific
1. a. causing or tending to cause sleep. b. tending to dull awareness or alertness.
2. of, relating to, or marked by sleepiness or lethargy
December 11, 2007
frindley commented on the word soporific
I always bring out the Beatrix Potter quote as evidence that it is possible to nurture wordie-ness even in the very young. This is one of the very earliest books I remember reading. And even then I "got" what she was trying to do to my vocabulary, and I've been using the word ever since.
March 31, 2008
frindley commented on the word soporific
Beatrix Potter's use of soporific is also invoked in Margaret Edson's excellent play W;t. (Also a film, the clever typography is meant to come out as Wit.)
March 31, 2008
paulbullen commented on the word soporific
Soporific means causing sleepiness. Something is soporific if it causes sleepiness. If the effect of something is sleepiness, that thing is soporific. It is not the effect of that thing that is soporific, it is the thing itself, which is a cause.
Lettuce is soporific: the effect of eating lettuce is sleepiness. It is the cause of sleepiness--the lettuce--that is soporific, not the effect of that cause. It is possible that sleepiness is soporific (in that it tends to cause more sleepiness), but Beatrix Potter wanted to communicate the idea that lettuce itself causes sleepiness, not that sleepiness causes sleepiness.
She apparently had a desire to introduce the word "soporific", but she did so inaptly. Instead of saying, "It is said that the effect of eating too much lettuce is soporific," she should have said, "It is said lettuce is soporific, that eating too much lettuce makes you sleepy."
March 17, 2009
seanahan commented on the word soporific
Wait, eating lettuce makes you sleepy?
March 30, 2009
bilby commented on the word soporific
Beddy bye-byes, bun-bun.
March 30, 2009
kingparton commented on the word soporific
The first pages, of most of these old papers, are as soporific as a bed of poppies.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tales and Sketches
November 23, 2011
mohitanand commented on the word soporific
adjective: inducing mental lethargy; sleep inducing
Although the professor is brilliant, his bland monotone gives his lectures a soporific effect.
October 19, 2016