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DictionaryquinineBitter medicinal compound
noun

quinine

KWY-nine/ˈkwaɪnaɪn/

A bitter compound from cinchona bark used to treat malaria.

The feverish patient recoils from the bitter taste of the quinine dose.

Quinine as a bitter malaria medicine: a feverish patient under mosquito netting recoils from the taste of a medicinal dose, with cinchona bark and prepared medicine prominently beside the bed.
Etymology
quinQuechuacinchona bark
+ineFrenchderived substance

The bark connection is literal: quinine is extracted from cinchona bark. The chemical ending marks the drug as a substance derived from that source.

In context

Boring History34:34
The medicine that answered the fever in A.E., the one the doctors trusted above all the folk-cures and the guesswork, was quinine
The Real Kansas Story Behind Netflix's Little House — Squatters, Fever 'n' Ague, and the Osage

More examples

  • Cinchona bark is a natural source of quinine.
  • The pharmacist checks the prescribed dose of quinine.
  • The quinine in tonic water gives it a bitter taste.