lysergic

adjective

ly·​ser·​gic lə-ˈsər-jik How to pronounce lysergic (audio)
(ˌ)lī-
: psychedelic
… the clarity of the picture, which renders trees, waves, seracs, clouds, and cliffs with a kind of lysergic radiance, flatters the natural world.Nick Paumgarten
In large measure, Sly and the Family Stone bridged the gap between the choreographed cool of soul music and the lysergic abandon of white psychedelic rock.Rolling Stone
… an equally lysergic painting of the late Timothy Leary, who, with his West Coast counterpart, novelist Ken Kesey, spread the gospel of psychedelia to the masses in the mid-1960s.Alan Reder

Example Sentences

Recent Examples on the Web Tainy’s spacey production, which is featured a few times on the album, brings out the song’s lysergic wooziness and helps Rauw swerve into unexpected directions — a move that’s refreshing for an artist who easily could have followed a more straightforward path of reggaeton hits. Julyssa Lopez, Rolling Stone, 24 Jan. 2022 And then there are the colors of the horizon, broadening like the spectrum of a fire by morning and fading into a lysergic wash by night. Grayson Haver Currin, Outside Online, 13 Nov. 2022 Oh, Our Patron Saint of the Holy Abbie-Doobie is still making the sort of broad, big-swing comedies he’s always made, still not afraid to channel his inner manchild in the middle of a lysergic sugar-high. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 10 June 2022 Co-creator Duncan Trussell voices Clancy, a hermetic simulation farmer in an impossibly lysergic future who spends his days interviewing people on dying worlds. Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 1 July 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lysergic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

after lysergic acid, of which LSD is a derivative

First Known Use

1982, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of lysergic was in 1982

Dictionary Entries Near lysergic

Cite this Entry

“Lysergic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lysergic. Accessed 10 Jun. 2023.

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