Other forms: painkillers
A painkiller is a tablet that dulls the hurt. It does not fix anything — it turns the volume down.
English calls the whole family painkillers and medicine calls them analgesics. They divide into the mild ones you can buy, like paracetamol and ibuprofen, and the strong opioids that need a prescription and carry real risks of dependency. The word is one word and thoroughly plain, which is why it appears on packaging aimed at everybody. Painkilling is the adjective, as in painkilling injection.
1nounpainkillerA drug that reduces or removes pain.
“She took a painkiller and went back to bed.”
From pain + killer.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Body & Health, A Man Called Ove
First appears in chapter 25 of A Man Called Ove.
Practise this word