Meaning & use
paregoric
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountableold-fashionedmedical
A flavored liquid medicine containing a small amount of opium, formerly given to ease stomach upset, coughs and teething pain.
Grammar: Used without an article when naming the substance: a bottle of paregoric.
Patterns
- a dose of paregoric
- a bottle of paregoric
Her grandmother remembered being given paregoric for a cough as a child.
Paregoric was once sold over the counter in many pharmacies.
The old medicine cabinet still held a brown bottle of paregoric.
Common combinations
- a dose of paregoric
- The nurse gave the baby a dose of paregoric in the old days.
- tincture of paregoric
- The label read tincture of paregoric.
- camphorated tincture
- Paregoric is a camphorated tincture of opium.
- bottle of paregoric
- He found a bottle of paregoric in an antique shop.
Synonyms and how they differ
- opiate
- Opiate names the whole class of opium-based drugs, while paregoric is one specific old medicine.
- anodyne
- Anodyne is a general, formal word for any pain-easing medicine, whereas paregoric names one particular remedy.
- elixir
- Elixir is a general term for a sweet medicinal liquid and does not imply opium.
Word family
- paregoric adjective
- soothing or easing pain, now very rare
- opium noun
- the narcotic drug obtained from the poppy
- camphor noun
- a strong-smelling substance used in medicines
Commonly confused: paregoric or paragoric? paregoric or pedagogic?
paregoric vs paragoric
This is a common misspelling of paregoric. The correct spelling has an e in the second syllable.
paregoric vs pedagogic
Pedagogic means relating to teaching, and is unrelated despite similar sounds.
Practice
Which spelling is correct for the old opium-based stomach medicine?
Choose one answer.
Paregoric is the accepted spelling, with e after the r. Paragoric is the frequent misspelling.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “paregoric”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.