medicate

verb

med·​i·​cate ˈme-di-ˌkāt 

medicated; medicating

transitive verb

1

: to treat (someone or something) with or as if with medicine

medicate a condition

was medicated for pain/depression

… is happily living his life one day at a time since he stopped drinking and otherwise medicating himself …

—Charles Leerhsen

2

: to impregnate with a medicinal substance

medicated soap

Examples of medicate in a Sentence

The patient had been heavily medicated.

Recent Examples on the Web

One in five Americans is now medicated for some form of mental illness, and suicide is the second-leading cause of death in people ages 10 to 24. — Kelly Rogers Victor, USA Today, 6 Sep. 2026

Her pain becomes something to be shared with a caring audience, rather than privately medicated into oblivion. — Angie Han, HollywoodReporter, 5 Sep. 2026

And, despite numerous attempts to seek medical care, she was either inappropriately medicated or not. — Jamie Maguire, STAT, 12 Aug. 2026

Reddington has argued that the medical professionals entrusted to treat Clancy failed to communicate with each other and failed to properly diagnose and medicate her. — Peter Charalambous, ABC News, 11 Aug. 2026

Word History

Etymology

Latin medicatus, past participle of medicare to heal, from medicus

First Known Use

circa 1623, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing medicate

• self-medicate

Rhymes for medicate

• abdicate
• abrogate
• acetate
• activate
• actuate
• aggravate
• agitate
• alginate
• alienate
• allocate
• amputate
• angulate

Medical Definition

medicate

transitive verb

med·​i·​cate ˈmed-ə-ˌkāt 

medicated; medicating

1

: to treat medicinally

2

: to impregnate with a medicinal substance

medicated soap