Definitions

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

  • adjective Of or relating to hypnosis.
  • adjective Of or relating to hypnotism.
  • adjective Inducing or tending to induce sleep; soporific.
  • noun A person who is hypnotized.
  • noun A person who can be hypnotized.
  • noun An agent that causes sleep; a soporific.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having the property of producing sleep; tending to produce sleep; soporific.
  • Pertaining to or characterized by hypnotism.
  • noun A medicine that produces or tends to produce sleep; an opiate; a soporific.
  • noun One who is subject to hypnotism; one in whom hypnotism has been induced.

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

  • adjective Having the quality of producing sleep; tending to produce sleep; soporific.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to hypnotism; in a state of hypnotism; liable to hypnotism.
  • noun Any agent that produces, or tends to produce, sleep; an opiate; a soporific; a narcotic.
  • noun A person who exhibits the phenomena of, or is subject to, hypnotism.

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

  • adjective Of, or relating to hypnosis or hypnotism.
  • adjective Inducing sleep; soporific.
  • noun A person who is, or can be, hypnotized.
  • noun A soporific substance.

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

  • adjective attracting and holding interest as if by a spell
  • noun a drug that induces sleep
  • adjective of or relating to hypnosis

Etymologies

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

[French hypnotique, from Late Latin hypnōticus, inducing sleep, from Greek hupnōtikos, from hupnoun, to put to sleep, from hupnos, sleep; see swep- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French hypnotique ("inclined to sleep, soporific"), from Late Latin hypnoticus, from Ancient Greek ὑπνωτικός (hupnōtikos, "inclined to sleep, putting to sleep, sleepy"), from ὑπνῶ (hupnō, "I put to sleep"), from ὕπνος (hupnos, "sleep").

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Examples

  • The world, it seems to me, abounds in people who are little more than blank sheets of paper, on which a strong hand may transcribe what it will – hysteric subjects, the doctors would call them; hypnotic subjects others would say; really the line that divides the hysteric condition from the hypnotic is a very hazy one.

    The Experiences of Loveday Brooke, Lady Detective 1894

  • I believe Colonel de Rochas was correct when he asserted that under the compulsion of his will he sent the girl Josephine, while she was in hypnotic trance, back through the eighteen years she had lived, back through the silence and the dark ere she had been born, back to the light of a previous living when she was a bed-ridden old man, the ex-artilleryman, Jean-Claude Bourdon.

    Chapter 12 2010

  • It's why a lot of good people -- including members of my own family -- have become disgusted with the Republican party and are distressed to see it being turned over to a bunch of ignorant Jesus-shouters who are one step away from wearing brown shirts and armbands and parading their hatred and holier-than-thou platitudes in hypnotic goose-stepping rhythm down Biscayne Boulevard.

    February 2006 2006

  • The DEA says the short-term hypnotic sleep aids have a "moderate risk" of dependence and possible side effects like "impaired memory of events."

    Perchance To ... Eat? 2007

  • I believe Colonel de Rochas was correct when he asserted chat under the compulsion of his will he sent the girl Josephine, while she was in hypnotic trance, back through the eighteen years she had lived, back through the silence and the dark ere she had been born, back to the light of a previous living when she was a bed-ridden old man, the ax-artilleryman, Jean-Claude Bourdon.

    Chapter 12 1915

  • I betcha something hypnotic is happening just outside of the photo’s frame … it’s probably that lady that plays music on a saw

    PROFILE: Midtown Lunch’er “Paul” | Midtown Lunch - Finding Lunch in the Food Wasteland of NYC's Midtown Manhattan 2008

  • Liz Carroll, a renowned fiddler and All-Ireland senior champion herself (1975), recalled the hypnotic power of Mr. Hayes's fiddling in her hometown of Chicago, to which he immigrated in 1985.

    Fearlessness and Fidelity 2008

  • The so-called hypnotic test of arm raising and unbendable arm reinforces that something special is happening and that in turn excites the imagination further along with even deeper critical factor bypass.

    A View on Compounding Suggestions 2005

  • The so-called hypnotic test of arm raising and unbendable arm reinforces that something special is happening and that in turn excites the imagination further along with even deeper critical factor bypass.

    Life of Brian: 2005

  • The cerebrotronic machine applied the most effective and safest method for its inquiry, namely hypnotic interrogation.

    Venus in Danger Mahr, Kurt 1976

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