Seconal
noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A barbiturate drug used as a sedative and hypnotic, a trade name of secobarbital. countable, uncountable
"Nearly every pharmaceutical house has its own brands, sold in tablets, solutions or brightly-colored capsules, on which its “detail men” keep doctors informed. Probably the most popular successors to Veronal are Seconal (“red birds” to the bootleg trade) and Nembutal (“yellow jackets”)."
- 2 barbiturate that is a white odorless slightly bitter powder (trade name Seconal) used as a sodium salt for sedation and to treat convulsions wordnet
Example
More examples"Nearly every pharmaceutical house has its own brands, sold in tablets, solutions or brightly-colored capsules, on which its “detail men” keep doctors informed. Probably the most popular successors to Veronal are Seconal (“red birds” to the bootleg trade) and Nembutal (“yellow jackets”)."
Etymology
Blend of secondary + allyl; origin 1930s.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.