chloroform

verb

chloroformed; chloroforming; chloroforms

transitive verb

: to treat with or as if with chloroform especially so as to produce anesthesia, insensibility, or death

Examples of chloroform in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The first is a li’l pony that has to be chloroformed so Siegfried can castrate it. —Alice Burton, Vulture, 16 Feb. 2025

Donor insemination continued largely underground, sans chloroform, until the 1950s. —Caitlin Harrington, Wired, 30 July 2020

But elsewhere in the cosmos, life might be built from different chemicals that dissolve and assemble in some other liquid: perhaps methane, kerosene, or even chloroform. —Kiona N. Smith, Discover Magazine, 26 June 2019

Word History

First Known Use

1848, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing chloroform

• methyl chloroform

Rhymes for chloroform

• coliform
• cribriform
• cruciform
• filiform
• fusiform
• isoform
• microform
• multiform
• outperform
• piriform
• plexiform
• pyriform

Kids Definition

chloroform

1 of 2 noun

chlo·​ro·​form ˈklōr-ə-ˌfȯrm 

ˈklȯr-

: a colorless heavy poisonous liquid that smells like ether and is used especially to dissolve other compounds

chloroform

2 of 2 verb

: to treat with chloroform especially so as to produce anesthesia or death

Medical Definition

chloroform

1 of 2 noun

chlo·​ro·​form ˈklōr-ə-ˌfȯrm, ˈklȯr- 

: a colorless volatile heavy toxic liquid CHCl₃ with an ether odor used especially as a solvent

called also trichloromethane

chloroform

2 of 2 transitive verb

: to treat with chloroform especially so as to produce anesthesia or death