depressant

plural depressants

1. countableuncountablemedicineA pharmacological substance which decreases neuronal or physiological activity.

   Alcohol acts first as a stimulant and then as a depressant.

   2 more examples

   The prescription painkiller Emily Jackson took is a respiratory depressant that slows breathing. That in combination with the alcohol, another respiratory depressant, overwhelmed her brain, which stopped giving her heart and lungs the signal to keep functioning.

   2012 November 15, Maxwell Newfield, “Prescription drug deaths: Two stories”, in CNN

   On the opposite end of the drug side effect spectrum are downers. This slang term refers to CNS depressants, the types of drugs that produce a sedative effect by slowing down the messages sent and received between the central nervous system and the brain.

   2024 April 10 [2020 August 27], Nick B., “Which Drugs Are Uppers And Downers?”, in The Freedom Center

2. countableuncountablebusinessAn agent that inhibits the flotation of a mineral or minerals.

comparative more depressant · superlative most depressant

1. medicineReducing functional or nervous activity.

   the conception of the asomatous depressant malaria

   1876, Alfred Alexander Woodhull, Studies, chiefly clinical […]