A person trained to administer medications which induce an insensibility or dullness to pain: It takes several years of training and supervision by a senior staff member to qualify as an anesthetist.

There is a major distinction between an "anesthesiologist" and an anesthetist. An anesthesiologist is a physician (or, less often, a dentist) who specializes in the practice of anesthesiology, while an anesthetist is a nurse, or technician, trained to administer anesthetics.

A person, not necessarily a physician, who administers medications to a person or an animal, the purpose of which is to render the recipient unaware of pain: The hospital employed several anesthetists to work in the operation rooms.