From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishsedatese‧date1 /sɪˈdeɪt/ adjective 1 ORDINARYcalm, serious, and formal a sedate seaside town The wedding was rather a sedate occasion.2 SLOW formal moving slowly and calmly We continued our walk at a sedate pace. —sedately adverb
Examples from the Corpus
sedate• Everybody downtown agreed that, if anything, Chicago had become even more sedate.• The authors are intensely polite and agreeable, rendering the discussions somewhat rehearsed and far too sedate.• Overall, the wedding was a sedate affair.• So while a Hilfiger presentation can sometimes transform into an unruly party, a Nautica show remains sedate and serious.• She watched his black, angular figure move at a sedate, clerical pace, across the grass.• Still, I was fairly sedate compared to the man sitting a couple of seats away.sedatesedate2 verb [transitive] MHto give someone drugs to make them calm or to make them sleep He was still in shock, and heavily sedated.Grammar Sedate is often used in the passive.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
heavily sedated• He observed that his daughter was heavily sedated and that her breathing was extremely laboured.• On her deathbed the heavily sedated Ann snatches back her past.• She was heavily sedated for the pain.Origin sedate1 (1600-1700) Latin past participle of sedare “to make calm” sedate2 (1900-2000) sedative 