To administer anaesthesia to a person in order to cause loss of consciousness or sensation, usually for medical purposes.
From 'anaesthetic' + '-ize' (a verb-forming suffix). The suffix '-ize' comes from Greek and is used to turn adjectives into verbs meaning 'to make' or 'to cause to be.'
The verb 'anaesthetize' is what doctors literally do dozens of times a day in hospitals—it's so routine now that it's hard to imagine that before the 1840s, this act was impossible, and surgery meant conscious agony.
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