Meanings
- uncountablemedicineA now discontinued brand name for buprenorphine, used to treat opiate addictions, in particular heroin.
She'd seen a doctor who’d prescribed Subutex, a drug-replacement treatment designed to wean the user off heroin. It had made her throw up. I was so relieved and told her how proud I was of her for taking control.
2013, Mitch Winehouse, Amy, My Daughter, London: Harper, →ISBN, page 1201 more example
He was a Subutex addict. Subutex is supposedly used to wean people off heroin but, from what I have seen, there are more Subutex addicts in jail than there are heroin addicts (and there are a lot of heroin addicts).
2010, Simon Eddisbury, Lowlife, London: John Blake, →ISBN, page 22
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
A marketing coinage, perhaps based on sublingual (“administered through placement under the tongue”).
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
Subutex. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Subutex
“Subutex.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Subutex. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Subutex,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Subutex.
Source: Subutex on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.