Placebo
Placebo , noun
[Latin, I shall please, fut. of placere to please.]
1.
(Roman Catholic Church) The first antiphon of the vespers for the dead.
2.
(Medicine) A prescription with no pharmacological activity given to a patient to humor or satisfy the desire for medical treatment.
3.
(Medicine) a dose of a compound having no pharmacological activity given to a subject in a medical experiment as part of a control experiment in a test of the effectiveness of another, active pharmacological agent.
Collocations (1)
To sing placebo , to agree with one in his opinion; to be complaisant to. — Chaucer