anaesthetic

Universal Words (BrE) (AmE anesthetic) noun, adjective noun [C,U] a drug that makes a person or an animal unable to feel anything, especially pain, either in the whole body or in a part of the body: How long will I be under the anaesthetic? * They gave him a general anaesthetic (= one that makes you lose consciousness). * (a) local anaesthetic (= one that affects only a part of the body) * We forget what life must have been like without anaesthetics and painkillers. adjective [onlybeforenoun] containing a substance that makes a person or an animal unable to feel pain in all or part of the body: an anaesthetic drug / spray