poison
/ˈpɔɪz(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1A substance that is capable of causing the illness or death of a living organism when introduced or absorbed: he killed himself with poison [count noun]: strong chemical poisons...
- Second-hand smoke contains about 4,000 chemicals, 200 poisons, and over 40 cancer-causing compounds.
- Because of ‘chemical drift’ those poisons are carried by the wind into towns and cities.
- The idea of using ‘friendly’ bacteria to combat poisons has been around for a number of years and is already used in animals such as pigs and chickens.
Synonyms
toxin, venom
archaic bane
rare toxicant
1.1 Chemistry A substance that reduces the activity of a catalyst.
1.2 Physics An additive or impurity in a nuclear reactor that slows a reaction by absorbing neutrons.
1.3Something that has a destructive or corrupting influence: the late 1930s, when Nazism was spreading its poison...
- Keynes' dream to overthrow the classical order of Adam Smith was greatly influenced by Marx's poison.
- Stupid laws contaminate those charged with enforcing them at the first level and then become exponentially more costly as their poison spreads through other layers of the economy.
- It takes no time at all for them to spread their poison and to implicate others in what they have done, if only by coverup.
Synonyms
malice, maliciousness, ill will, hate, malevolence, malignity, malignancy, balefulness, embitterment, embitteredness, spite, spitefulness, venom, acrimony, acrimoniousness, rancour;
bad influence, blight, bane, contagion, cancer, canker, corruption, pollution
verb [with object]
1Administer poison to (a person or animal), either deliberately or accidentally: he tried to poison his wife (as noun poisoning) symptoms of poisoning may include nausea, diarrhoea, and vomiting...
- He tried to poison us like lower animals, like the mice that pester storybook villages, the insects that fly around the heads of those that I read about.
- Towards the end, as he's dying of an undefined illness, we realize he picks up chicks by poisoning their pets but acting so super nice and stuff.
- The snake's venom poisoned the wolf and raven's blood.
Synonyms
administer poison to, give poison to;
murder
1.1Adulterate or contaminate with poison: the Amazon basin is being poisoned by the mercury used by gold prospectors...
- On the Australian mainland, they killed them by giving them poisoned food and clothing contaminated by diseases they had never before experienced.
- Scary reports are all over the media here in southern California about some nutball who poisoned some baby food.
- In June 2002, following threats that their food would be poisoned, the men were unable to eat for a period of seven days.
Synonyms
contaminate, put poison in, adulterate, tamper with, spike, lace, doctor
pollute, contaminate, taint, foul, befoul, dirty, blight, spoil
1.2 (usually as adjective poisoned) Treat (a weapon or missile) with poison in order to augment its lethal effect: poisoned arrows...
- But this is still not all there is in combat, as you can poison your weapons or arrows to do even more damage.
- The Sultan's army was primarily light cavalry armed with crossbows that shot poisoned arrows.
- I was especially wary of them this time, now that I knew their swords were poisoned, and dodged them as they attempted to advance on me.
1.3Prove harmful or destructive to: his disgust had poisoned his attitude toward everyone...
- And, if your opponent is indeed guilty of abusing those around him: It won't be long before he fatally poisons his campaign with destructive behavior.
- But I simply cannot remain silent and sit here and listen when a party that is trying to attain power at any cost poisons the relationship between the two peoples of this country.
- Their bitterness poisons their attitude and their outlook on life.
Synonyms
prejudice, bias, jaundice, colour, embitter, sour, envenom, warp, corrupt, subvert
1.4 Chemistry (Of a substance) reduce the activity of (a catalyst).The cells worked well initially, but any traces of carbon monoxide in the hydrogen fuel quickly poisoned the catalyst....
- The catalysts are easily poisoned by lead, however, which clogs their reactive surfaces.
- And that soaks into tissue very readily, with the acid part doing its damage along the way, and the fluoride merrily poisoning enzymes and wreaking havoc.
Phrases
what's your poison?
Derivatives
poisoner
/ noun ...- Popular, because of its availability, with Victorian poisoners, arsenic also caused some spectacular accidental mass poisonings, notably the Bradford Poisoning.
- Enforcement agencies and wildlife groups have formed a special unit to track down poisoners responsible for the ‘mindless killing’ of red kites following their re-introduction in Yorkshire.
- Capsules derived from mussels and garlic have exceeded the legal food limit for arsenic, traditionally used by poisoners.
Origin
Middle English (denoting a harmful medicinal draught): from Old French poison 'magic potion', from Latin potio(n-) 'potion', related to potare 'to drink'.
A poison does not necessarily need to be in liquid form, but in early use the word meant a drink or medicine, specifically a potion with a harmful or dangerous ingredient. The source was Old French poison ‘magic potion’, from Latin potio, also the source of potion (Middle English). The saying one man's meat is another man's poison has been around for centuries and was being described as long ago as 1604 as ‘that old moth-eaten proverb’. A similar idea is found in the work of the Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius (c.94–55 bc): ‘What is food to one person may be bitter poison to others.’ A chalice (Middle English) from Latin calix, ‘cup’, also the source of the botanical calix) is a large cup or goblet, and a poisoned chalice something that seems attractive but is likely to be a source of problems. A poisoned chalice features in Shakespeare's Macbeth, and is the source of our expression.