Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or affected with coma; unconscious.
  • adjective Marked by lethargy; torpid.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to or resembling coma; affected with coma; morbidly drowsy or lethargic: as, a comatose state; a comatose patient; “hysterical and comatose cases,”

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Relating to, or resembling, coma; drowsy; lethargic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective resembling a coma: unconscious
  • adjective drowsy or lethargic

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective relating to or associated with a coma
  • adjective in a state of deep and usually prolonged unconsciousness; unable to respond to external stimuli

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek kōma, kōmat-, deep sleep + –ose.]

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Examples

  • I know what _comatose_ means, and I thought that comatose was a good way to stay until I figured out what was going on.

    Who Do You Say I Am 2010

  • A group, National Prayer Movement, has decried what it described as the comatose state of the nation owing to the sickness of President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua, saying the situation is most unfortunate.

    Thisday Online 2009

  • He was comatose from the raging infection in his left hand and could not tell the compassionate, but practical, pilot who he was or where to take him so they left him at the spring of Asclepios.

    The One Handed Rower of Myonnesus « A Fly in Amber 2009

  • Johnny Got His Gun, wherein a maimed soldier, rigidly comatose, is agonizingly aware of his surroundings while utterly unable to communicate even a hint of his own sentience to those around his bed.

    Nasty, Brutish, and Short 2008

  • Johnny Got His Gun, wherein a maimed soldier, rigidly comatose, is agonizingly aware of his surroundings while utterly unable to communicate even a hint of his own sentience to those around his bed.

    Nasty, Brutish, and Short 2008

  • But seriously, is the story of a traumatized father searching to help his long-term comatose son at a strange clinic where the staff are all lunatics, an area motorcycle gang steals brain fluid, and a child's comic book features rape, murder, and lethal discrimination all that much lighter, bro?

    Jack O'Connell Ed Gorman 2008

  • And I could have gone to the hospital, because their father was there (albeit half-comatose from the stomach flu – I kept shoving phenergan from my own stash down his throat with Gatorade and he stayed home, too), but you know what?

    The Very Best Intentions @ Attack of the Redneck Mommy 2006

  • But seriously, is the story of a traumatized father searching to help his long-term comatose son at a strange clinic where the staff are all lunatics, an area motorcycle gang steals brain fluid, and a child's comic book features rape, murder, and lethal discrimination all that much lighter, bro?

    Archive 2008-09-01 Ed Gorman 2008

  • In order to ensure that all people are protected, as the Republicans say they are concerned with, we are introducing The Terry Schiavo bill, mandating that insurance companies must provide coverage for the helpless people in comatose states for as long as the family desires it.

    "That Is Why You Fail" 2005

  • They kept complaining about pain and kept getting more and more narcotics in response to their complaints until they were comatose from the drugs.

    Medpundit 2003

Comments

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  • if you are unconscious you are comatose

    January 8, 2009

  • When your foot goes to sleep.

    June 3, 2018