Crossword clues for laudanum
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Laudanum \Lau"da*num\, n. [Orig. the same wort as ladanum, ladbdanum: cf. F. laudanum, It. laudano, ladano. See Ladanum.] Tincture of opium, used for various medical purposes.
Note: A fluid ounce of American laudanum should contain the
soluble matter of one tenth of an ounce avoirdupois of
powdered opium with equal parts of alcohol and water.
English laudanum should have ten grains less of opium
in the fluid ounce.
--U. S. Disp.
Dutchman's laudanum (Bot.) See under Dutchman.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1600, from Modern Latin laudanum (1540s), coined by Paracelsus for a medicine he mixed, supposed to contain gold and crushed pearls and many expensive ingredients, but probably owing its effectiveness to only one of them, opium. Perhaps from Latin laudare "to praise," or from Latin ladanum "a gum resin," from Greek ladanon, a word perhaps of Semitic origin. The word soon came to be used for "any alcoholic tincture of opium." Latin ladanum was used in Middle English of plant resins, but this is not regarded as the source of the 16c. word.
Wiktionary
n. A tincture of opium, once widely used for various medical purposes and as a recreational drug. vb. 1 (context transitive English) To add laudanum to (a drink or the like). 2 (context rare English) To cause (a person) to be high on laudanum.
WordNet
n. narcotic consisting of a tincture of opium or any preparation in which opium is the main ingredient [syn: tincture of opium]
Wikipedia
Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight (the equivalent of 1% morphine).
Reddish-brown and extremely bitter, laudanum contains almost all of the opium alkaloids, including morphine and codeine, and its high morphine concentration makes it a potent narcotic. Laudanum was historically used to treat a variety of ailments, but its principal use was as an analgesic and cough suppressant. Until the early 20th century, laudanum was sold without a prescription and was a constituent of many patent medicines. Today, laudanum is recognized as addictive and is strictly regulated and controlled as such throughout most of the world. The United States Uniform Controlled Substances Act, for one example, lists it on Schedule II.
Laudanum is known as a "whole opium" preparation since it historically contained all the opium alkaloids. Today, however, the drug is often processed to remove all or most of the noscapine (also called narcotine) present as this is a strong emetic and does not add appreciably to the analgesic or anti-propulsive properties of opium; the resulting solution is called Denarcotized Tincture of Opium or Deodorized Tincture of Opium (DTO).
Laudanum remains available by prescription in the United States and theoretically in the United Kingdom, although today the drug's therapeutic indications are generally confined to controlling diarrhea, alleviating pain, and easing withdrawal symptoms in infants born to mothers addicted to heroin or other opioids. Recent enforcement action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) against manufacturers of paregoric and opium tincture suggests that opium tincture's availability in the U.S. may be in jeopardy.
The terms laudanum and tincture of opium are generally interchangeable, but in contemporary medical practice the latter is used almost exclusively.
Usage examples of "laudanum".
If the stomach be irritable, a tablespoonful of laudanum and one of tincture of lobelia, in four ounces of starch water, administered as an injection, is effectual.
Far from laughing at her, I told her she was quite right, and asked where she had got the laudanum.
She had woken from her laudanum sleep, but the opiate was still in her blood and she lay without moving.
Williams gave him an antipyretic along with some laudanum to fight the fever and pain.
She had done as she was bidden, leaving Tetty giddy from laudanum, the expression on her face disordered, her nightcap askew.
Jericho and Archimedes stopped their searches for laudanum, though they continued to keep a sharp eye on Mother during any gatherings with food or drink.
The cutting crew, properly dosed with alcohol and laudanum, worked an hourlong shift of cutting chunks of the logs and hitching teams to them to haul the cut pieces away.
Cursing the aged crone who had a penchant for laudanum and a tongue clove in twain like most mean old serpents, he staggered to the door to let her in for a morning teaspoon of pain relief.
He knew that was in part due to the laudanum his grandmother had forced him to drink, but it seemed vital that he remember every moment of their time together.
Bolts of gingham and calico, plowpoints, bottles of ink, fiddle strings and fishhooks, packets of steel needles, gunpowder and flints, bar lead and bullet molds, axeheads, blank books and wool blankets, laudanum and coffee beans, pistols and palm-leaf hats and horse fleams.
Far from laughing at her, I told her she was quite right, and asked where she had got the laudanum.
She struck me as the sort of woman who, a hundred years ago, might have spent long years in a sanitarium with a series of misdiagnoses stemming from anxiety, un-happiness, laudanum addiction, or an aversion to sex.
I need hot water, clean strips of linen very clean, mind you basilicum powder and laudanum.
I do hate informing,' he went on, 'but without the least intention of catching him out I came upon him siphoning laudanum from one of the carboys and replacing the tincture with brandy .
I do hate informing,' he went on, 'but without the least intention of catching him out I came upon him siphoning laudanum from one of the carboys and replacing the tincture with brandy.