English▸ noun a drug or other substance that affects mood or behavior and is consumed for nonmedical purposes, especially one sold illegally:
cultivation of a plant used to make a popular local narcotic.
▪ Medicine a drug that relieves pain and induces drowsiness, stupor, or insensibility:
pethidine, usually given as an injection, is a narcotic which causes drowsiness.
▸ adjective relating to or denoting narcotics or illegal drugs:
consumption of narcotic substances.
▪ having the effect of relieving pain and inducing drowsiness, stupor, or insensibility:
the substance has a mild narcotic effect.
– ORIGIN late Middle English : from Old French narcotique, via medieval Latin from Greek narkōtikos, from narkoun ‘make numb’.