noun
chloroform
KLO-ruh-fawm
noun
1
A sweet-smelling, colourless liquid chemical once used as an anaesthetic and still used today as an industrial solvent.
"Chloroform was commonly used to put patients under before modern anaesthetics were developed."
verb
1
To knock someone unconscious using chloroform.
"In the old film, the villain chloroforms his victim with a soaked cloth."
How to Use Chloroform
Learner’s notesIn plain EnglishA chemical once used to knock people out for surgery, now mainly an industrial solvent.
Word Forms
chloroformed past tense, chloroforms singular
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_____ was commonly used to put patients under before modern anaesthetics were developed.
Etymology
Coined in French by chemist Jean-Baptiste Dumas in 1834, blending "chloride" and "formyl" (a chemical group from formic acid).