medicate

verb

med·​i·​cate ˈme-di-ˌkāt 

medicated; medicating

transitive verb

1

: to treat (someone or something) with or as if with medicine

medicate a condition

was medicated for pain/depression

… is happily living his life one day at a time since he stopped drinking and otherwise medicating himself …

—Charles Leerhsen

2

: to impregnate with a medicinal substance

medicated soap

Examples of medicate in a Sentence

The patient had been heavily medicated.

Recent Examples on the Web

Many of the characters seem to have been medicated into a stupefied affectlessness. —Moira Donegan, New Yorker, 26 Mar. 2025

And after this diagnosis, I was given the option of being medicated. —Nate Jackson, Los Angeles Times, 10 Apr. 2025

Lottie sees a future back home where she is once again medicated, the imbalances in her brain constrained rather than allowed to run wild. —Esther Zuckerman, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025

The answer lies in a combination of outdated medical practices, gender biases in healthcare and a societal tendency to medicate rather than address the root causes of women’s distress. —Ximena Araya-Fischel, Forbes.com, 26 Mar. 2025

Word History

Etymology

Latin medicatus, past participle of medicare to heal, from medicus

First Known Use

circa 1623, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing medicate

• self-medicate

Rhymes for medicate

• abdicate
• abrogate
• acetate
• activate
• actuate
• adsorbate
• aggravate
• agitate
• alginate
• alienate
• allocate
• amputate

Medical Definition

medicate

transitive verb

med·​i·​cate ˈmed-ə-ˌkāt 

medicated; medicating

1

: to treat medicinally

2

: to impregnate with a medicinal substance

medicated soap