a. (sb.) [ad. L. type *torpōrific-us, f. torpōr-em TORPOR + -ficus making: see -FIC.] Causing torpor; producing numbness; paralysing; also fig. stupefying, deadening. † Torporific eel, the gymnotus or electric eel (obs.).

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1769.  E. Bancroft, Guiana, 190. There is one of the Eel tribe,… which I shall beg leave to call the Torporific Eel.

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1825.  New Monthly Mag., XV. 77/2. The torporific sway of Austria.

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1852.  Fraser’s Mag., XLV. 632. Galen … tells the Torpedo affects by a torporific action peculiar to itself.

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  b.  absol. as sb. Something causing torpor.

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1840.  Manning, Lett., in Purcell, Life (1895), I. ix. 169. I find the want of such opportunities of conversation a great torporific.

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