dwale

1. (archaic) A sleeping-potion, especially one made from belladonna.Examples: "The authors studied the ingredients and method of administration to try to ascertain whether dwale was effective, and they found it certainly could have worked."; "'That is all?' Payne askes. 'You need no salve? No dwale?'"; "Dwale was a solution of wine mixed with a number of other ingredients, Some were pretty mile, like lettuce and boar bile. But the recipe also called for hemlock and belladonna, both known to be highly poisonous."archaiccountableuncountable

2. (dialect) A torpor.Examples: "He's in a dwale, a dead sleep; a common expression in the North of England."; "I stayed up there in a dwale – not seeing, not even thinking – until suddenly the wind got up and its chill woke me."countabledialectaluncountable