v. Also 8–9 -ilize. [f. TRANQUIL + -IZE, or ad. F. tranquilliser (15–16th c. in Hatz.-Darm.).]
1. trans. To render tranquil; to calm, soothe.
1623. Cockeram, Tranquillize, to quiet or pacifie.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., II. xix. Joys without a name, That, while they rapture, tranquillize the mind.
1782. Miss Burney, Cecilia, VIII. ii. Tranquillize, I conjure you, your agitated spirits.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, I. iii. 22. It tranquillises the mind as well as the body.
1836. Gentl. Mag., Sept., 313/2. He [Lord Stanley] denied that the Bill … would ‘tranquillize’ Ireland, as it was called.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xi. 78. A cigar which he lighted for the purpose tranquilized him.
2. intr. To become tranquil or quiet.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), V. vii. 79. I’ll try, as I ride in my chariot, to tranquillize.
1797. Anna Seward, Lett. (1811), IV. 396. How much better for England,… that her sons should tranquillize.
1814. Byron, Corsair, II. iv. 46. ’Twas but a moment’s peevish hectic past Along his cheek, and tranquillised as fast.
Hence Tranquillizing vbl. sb. and ppl. a.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, III. xxiii. The old Man tranquilly Up his curl’d pipe inhales The tranquillizing herb.
1850. Lynch, Theo. Trinal, v. 80. Then [I] beheld the tranquillizing moon-rise.
1873. Hamerton, Intell. Life, I. iii. (1876), 19. The tranquillizing of a sort of uneasiness.
