pentobarbital

plural pentobarbitals · alternative UK pentobarbitone

1. countableuncountablemedicineA narcotic and sedative barbiturate drug (trademark Nembutal) formerly used to relieve insomnia.

   In a pair of emergency legal filings, Ms. Pike’s lawyers said that while two syringes of pentobarbital, the lethal drug, had been administered, Ms. Pike had not lost consciousness. She still had a heartbeat, they said, and was audibly snoring.

   2026 September 30, Emily Cochrane, Ann E. Marimow, “Tennessee Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Still Alive After Attempts to Execute Her, Lawyers Say”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

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   And lest anyone think traipsing through the gray and bleach-smelly execution chamber where triple homicide offenders are injected with pentobarbital isn't depressing enough, later they will stage a press conference in front of the gates of Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery, the parched plot of land where executed prisoners whose bodies family members prefer not to claim are buried.

   2016, Christopher Kelly, The Pink Bus, Mapple Shade, New Jersey: Lethe Press, page 146

   Synonyms: equitensin, euthesate, nembutal