Definition

Noun: A liquid medicine, specifically a potion or drink, designed to induce sleep. It is a sedative or soporific substance administered orally to help a person fall asleep.

Usage

This term is used to refer to a medicinal drink taken to cause drowsiness and sleep. It is typically mentioned in medical, historical, or literary contexts. * The doctor prescribed a sleeping draught for the patient suffering from severe insomnia. * In the old tale, the queen was given a sleeping draught that made her slumber for a hundred years.

Advanced Usage

• The phrase can be used metaphorically to describe something that is extremely boring or soporific.
  • His lecture was a veritable sleeping draught; half the audience nodded off.

Variants and Related Words

• Sleeping potion: A direct synonym, often used in fantasy or fairy-tale contexts.
• Sedative: A broader term for any drug that calms or induces sleepiness.
• Soporific: An adjective or noun describing something that causes sleep.

Synonyms

Hypnotic, sedative, soporific, nightcap (informal, for an alcoholic drink taken before bed).

Related Phrases

• To administer a sleeping draught: The formal act of giving the medicine to someone.
  • The nurse was instructed to administer the sleeping draught at ten o'clock.

Noun

1. a soporific drug in the form of a pill (or tablet or capsule)