restorative

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈstɒɹətɪv/
• Hyphenation: re‧stora‧tive

restorative

1. Serving to restore.

   After a long day working in the fields Clarence took comfort in a restorative pint of beer.

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

     Destroys life's enemy, / Hunger, with sweet restorative delight.

restorative (plural restoratives)

1. Something with restoring properties.
   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 25:

     Marianne’s joy was almost a degree beyond happiness, so great was the perturbation of her spirits and her impatience to be gone. Her unwillingness to quit her mother was her only restorative to calmness; and at the moment of parting her grief on that score was excessive.

2. (euphemistic) An alcoholic drink, especially with tonic.
   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XIV, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     “Well, let's hope you're right, darling. In the meantime,” said Kipper, “if I don't get that whisky-and-soda soon, I shall disintegrate. Would you mind if I went in search of it, Mrs Travers?” “It's the very thing I was about to suggest myself. Dash along and drink your fill, my unhappy young stag at eve.” “I'm feeling rather like a restorative, too,” said Bobbie. “Me also,” I said, swept along on the tide of the popular movement. “Though I would advise,” I said, when we were outside, “making it port. More authority.”

• OED2

• arse over tit