Thalidomide

//θəˈlɪdəˌmaɪd// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A drug sold during the late 1950s and early 1960s as a sleeping aid, and to pregnant women as an antiemetic to combat morning sickness and other symptoms, but withdrawn as causing severe birth defects, such as phocomelia; currently used to treat leprosy. countable, uncountable

    "I have tried all the medium and short acting non-barbiturate sedatives since the war (including thalidomide) but they don’t work and I don’t trust the newfangled long acting, “safe” analgesics."

  2. 2
    a sedative and hypnotic drug; withdrawn from sale after discovered to cause severe birth defects because it inhibits angiogenesis wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
(2,6-dioxopiperidin-3-yl)-1h-isoindole-13(2h)dione — c13h10n2o4alcoholdepressantrstranquilizer

Example

More examples

"I have tried all the medium and short acting non-barbiturate sedatives since the war (including thalidomide) but they don’t work and I don’t trust the newfangled long acting, “safe” analgesics."

Etymology

From (ph)thal(ic acid) + (im)ido + (i)mide.

Related phrases

pseudothalidomide syndromethalidomide babythalidomide childbirth defectmorning sickness

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.