liniment

From Middle English lynyment (“something used for smearing or anointing”), a learned borrowing from Late Latin linīmentum.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɪnəmənt/

• Audio (General American):

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liniment (countable and uncountable, plural liniments)

1. A topical medical preparation intended to be rubbed into the skin with friction, as for example to relieve symptoms of arthritis.
   • 1959, “Mr. Denton on Doomsday” (16:29 from the start), in The Twilight Zone, season 1, episode 3, spoken by Henry J. Fate (Malcolm Atterbury):

     Denton (Dan Duryea): You're a peddler, aren't you? / Henry J. Fate (Malcolm Atterbury): Oh yes, dealer in everything. Utensils, herbs, medicine, liniments and tonics, farm implements, clothing, and potions.

   • 1975 September 5, Red Smith, quoting Phil Bieber, “Lyin’ Fitz, the Beautiful Dreamer”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 13 February 2026, page 21, columns 2–3:

     He had a blanket across his withers and wore four bandages, the two front ones up over his knees. The odor of liniment was strong. The horse dragged his feet laboriously.

• Not to be confused with linament.

liniment (third-person singular simple present liniments, present participle linimenting, simple past and past participle linimented)

1. (transitive) To apply liniment to.

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

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liniment m (plural liniments)

1. liniment

• “liniment”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Borrowed from French liniment.

liniment n (plural linimente)

1. liniment