To medicate means to give medicine to someone (or yourself) to treat an illness, ease pain, or manage a medical condition. When a doctor medicates a patient with a fever, she might prescribe medicine to bring the temperature down. Parents medicate their children when they give them cough syrup or a pain reliever.

The word often implies ongoing treatment rather than a single dose. A person with diabetes might need to medicate daily with insulin. Someone with allergies might medicate throughout spring to control sneezing and itchy eyes. Veterinarians medicate animals too: a dog with an infection gets medicated with antibiotics, just like people do.

Medication (the noun form) refers to the medicine itself. You might take medication for a headache or to help you focus in class if you have a medical condition like ADHD.

Sometimes people use medicate when they're treating themselves without a doctor. Self-medicating means choosing your own remedies, which might be okay for minor problems like putting ointment on a scraped knee, but it can be dangerous for serious conditions that really need a doctor's expertise.