a. and sb. [f. SOMNI- + pres. pple. of facĕre to make.] a. adj. Somnific. b. sb. A soporific. (Cent. Dict., 1891.)
1903. Miners Jrnl. (Pottsville, PA), 10 Oct., 1/2. Very often he was unable to sleep at night, and in order to prevent a total collapse, Dr. Swaving, the prison physician, found it necessary to administer a somnifacient.
1914. Indianapolis News, 24 Jan., 23/3. So surfeited did we become in the interminable talk that one afternoon, as some estimable gentleman proclaimed the virtues and defects of saivarsan in somnifacient monotone, we slipped down a plane or two from the conscious, and suddenly found ourselves in a convention of diseases.
