Meaning & use
premedicated
Last updated
“premedicated” is a form of “premedicate”.
Meanings
verbtransitivemedical
Gave a patient or animal a drug before a procedure, to calm them or prevent a problem.
Grammar: Takes an object: the nurse premedicated the patient.
Patterns
- premedicate someone
- premedicate someone with something
The vet premedicated the dog before the dental surgery.
Doctors premedicated the child with a mild sedative.
The team premedicated the patient to reduce nausea.
adjectiveafter a verbmedical
Having received a drug before a procedure such as surgery or a scan.
Grammar: Often follows be: she was premedicated.
Patterns
- be premedicated
- premedicated patient
The premedicated patient felt calm in the operating room.
She was premedicated and drowsy by the time they arrived.
A premedicated animal is easier to examine safely.
Word forms
| third person singular | premedicates |
|---|---|
| past tense | premedicated |
| past participle | premedicated |
| -ing form | premedicating |
| base form | premedicate |
Common combinations
- premedicated patient
- The premedicated patient fell asleep quickly.
- premedicated with a sedative
- He was premedicated with a sedative.
- premedicate before surgery
- Staff premedicate before surgery to ease anxiety.
- premedicated animal
- A premedicated animal needs less anesthetic.
- be premedicated
- Children are often premedicated before an MRI.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sedated
- Sedated says the patient was calmed or made drowsy, while premedicated only says a drug was given beforehand, whatever its purpose.
- pretreated
- Pretreated is broader and can mean any treatment beforehand, not only medicines.
- dosed
- Dosed is an informal word for giving a measured amount of medicine and does not say when it happened.
Opposites
Word family
- premedicate verb
- to give a drug beforehand
- premedication noun
- the drug given before a procedure
- medicate verb
- to treat with medicine
- medication noun
- medicine
- unmedicated adjective
- having had no medicine
Commonly confused: premedicated or premed?
premedicated vs premed
Premed is a student term for a course of study before medical school, not a drug given before surgery.
Practice
The patient was premedicated before surgery. This means ____.
Choose one answer.
Pre- means before, so premedicated means given medicine beforehand. The last option reverses the timing, which is why it is wrong.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “premedicated”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.