poison definition | Dictionary.com

poi⋅son

[poi-zuh

–noun

1.	a substance with an inherent property that tends to destroy life or impair health.

2.	something harmful or pernicious, as to happiness or well-being: the poison of slander.

3.	Slang. any variety of alcoholic liquor: Name your poison!

–verb (used with object)

4.	to administer poison to (a person or animal).

5.	to kill or injure with or as if with poison.

6.	to put poison into or upon; saturate with poison: to poison food.

7.	to ruin, vitiate, or corrupt: Hatred had poisoned his mind.

8.	Chemistry. to destroy or diminish the activity of (a catalyst or enzyme).

–adjective

9.	causing poisoning; poisonous: a poison shrub.

Origin:
1200–50; ME puisun < OF < L pōtiōn- (s. of pōtiō) drink, potion, poisonous draught

Related forms:

poi⋅son⋅er, noun

poi⋅son⋅less, adjective

poi⋅son⋅less⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. Poison, toxin, venom are terms for any substance that injures the health or destroys life when absorbed into the system, esp. of a higher animal. Poison is the general word: a poison for insects. A toxin is a poison produced by an organism; it is esp. used in medicine in reference to disease-causing bacterial secretions: A toxin produces diphtheria. Venom is esp. used of the poisons secreted by certain animals, usually injected by bite or sting: the venom of a snake. 7. contaminate, pollute, taint.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To poison

poi·son (poi'zən)

A substance that causes injury, illness, or death, especially by chemical means.
Something destructive or fatal.
Chemistry & Physics A substance that inhibits another substance or a reaction: a catalyst poison.

tr.v. poi·soned, poi·son·ing, poi·sons

To kill or harm with poison.
To put poison on or into: poisoning arrows; poisoned the drink.
1. To pollute: Noxious fumes poison the air. See Synonyms at contaminate.
2. To have a harmful influence on; corrupt: Jealousy poisoned their friendship.
Chemistry & Physics To inhibit (a substance or reaction).

adj. Poisonous.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pōtiō, pōtiōn-, drink; see pō(i)- in Indo-European roots.]
poi'son·er n.

Word History: The phrase poison potion, besides being alliterative, also consists of doublets, that is, two words that go back ultimately to the same source in another language. The source for both words is Latin pōtiō (stem form pōtiōn-), which meant "the act of drinking, a drink, or a draft, as of a medicine or poison." Our word potion, which retains the sense "dose," passed through Old French (pocion) on its way to Middle English (pocion), first recorded in a work composed around 1300. In Old French pocion is a learned borrowing, one that was deliberately taken from Latin in a form corresponding to the Latin form. Our spelling potion is the result of a similar impulse toward Latinization; in the late Renaissance and Enlightenment, numerous English words that had been borrowed from Old French were respelled according to the shape of their Latin ancestors. Pocion thus was changed to potion on the model of Latin pōtiō. But the Latin word had also passed through Vulgar Latin into Old French in the different form poison. This word meant "beverage," "liquid dose," and also "poison beverage, poison." The word poison is first recorded in Middle English in a work composed around 1200.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Poison

Poi"son\, n. [F. poison, in Old French also, a potion, fr. L. potio a drink, draught, potion, a poisonous draught, fr. potare to drink. See Potable, and cf. Potion.]

1. Any agent which, when introduced into the animal organism, is capable of producing a morbid, noxious, or deadly effect upon it; as, morphine is a deadly poison; the poison of pestilential diseases.

2. That which taints or destroys moral purity or health; as, the poison of evil example; the poison of sin.

Poison ash. (Bot.) (a) A tree of the genus Amyris (A. balsamifera) found in the West Indies, from the trunk of which a black liquor distills, supposed to have poisonous qualities. (b) The poison sumac (Rhus venenata). [U. S.]

Poison dogwood (Bot.), poison sumac.

Poison fang (Zo["o]l.), one of the superior maxillary teeth of some species of serpents, which, besides having the cavity for the pulp, is either perforated or grooved by a longitudinal canal, at the lower end of which the duct of the poison gland terminates. See Illust. under Fang.

Poison gland (Biol.), a gland, in animals or plants, which secretes an acrid or venomous matter, that is conveyed along an organ capable of inflicting a wound.

Poison hemlock (Bot.), a poisonous umbelliferous plant (Conium maculatum). See Hemlock.

Poison ivy (Bot.), a poisonous climbing plant (Rhus Toxicodendron) of North America. It is common on stone walls and on the trunks of trees, and has trifoliate, rhombic-ovate, variously notched leaves. Many people are poisoned by it, if they touch the leaves. See Poison sumac. Called also poison oak, and mercury.

Poison nut. (Bot.) (a) Nux vomica. (b) The tree which yields this seed (Strychnos Nuxvomica). It is found on the Malabar and Coromandel coasts.

Poison oak (Bot.), the poison ivy; also, the more shrubby Rhus diversiloba of California and Oregon.

Poison sac. (Zo["o]l.) Same as Poison gland, above. See Illust. under Fang.

Poison sumac (Bot.), a poisonous shrub of the genus Rhus (R. venenata); -- also called poison ash, poison dogwood, and poison elder. It has pinnate leaves on graceful and slender common petioles, and usually grows in swampy places. Both this plant and the poison ivy (Rhus Toxicodendron) have clusters of smooth greenish white berries, while the red-fruited species of this genus are harmless. The tree (Rhus vernicifera) which yields the celebrated Japan lacquer is almost identical with the poison sumac, and is also very poisonous. The juice of the poison sumac also forms a lacquer similar to that of Japan.

Syn: Venom; virus; bane; pest; malignity.

Usage: Poison, Venom. Poison usually denotes something received into the system by the mouth, breath, etc. Venom is something discharged from animals and received by means of a wound, as by the bite or sting of serpents, scorpions, etc. Hence, venom specifically implies some malignity of nature or purpose.

Poison

Poi"son\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Poisoned; p. pr. & vb. n. Poisoning.] [Cf. OF. poisonner, F. empoissoner, L. potionare to give to drink. See Poison, n.]

1. To put poison upon or into; to infect with poison; as, to poison an arrow; to poison food or drink. "The ingredients of our poisoned chalice." --Shak.

2. To injure or kill by poison; to administer poison to.

If you poison us, do we not die ? --Shak.

3. To taint; to corrupt; to vitiate; as, vice poisons happiness; slander poisoned his mind.

Whispering tongues can poison truth. --Coleridge.

Poison

Poi"son\, v. i. To act as, or convey, a poison.

Tooth that poisons if it bite. --Shak.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : poison

Spanish: veneno,

German: das Gift; Gift-…,

Japanese: 毒

More Translations »

poison

c.1230, "a deadly potion," from O.Fr. puison (12c.) "a drink," later "a potion, poisonous drink" (14c.), from L. potionem (nom. potio) "a drink," also "poisonous drink," from potare "to drink" (see potion). The O.E. word was ator (see attercop). Slang sense of "alcoholic drink" first attested 1805, Amer.Eng. The verb is c.1300, from the noun. Poison ivy first recorded 1784; poison oak is from 1743. Poison gas first recorded 1915. Poison-pen is from 1914.

Main Entry: ¹poi·son
Pronunciation: 'poiz-^&n
Function: noun
1 : a substance that through its chemical action usuallykills, injures, or impairs an organism
2 : a substance that inhibits the activity of another substance or the course of a reaction or process poison>

Main Entry: ²poison
Function: transitive verb
Inflected Forms: poi·soned; poi·son·ing /'poiz-ni[ng],-^&n-i[ng]/
1 : to injure or kill with poison
2 : to treat, taint, or impregnate with poison

Main Entry: ³poison
Function: adjective
1 : POISONOUS poisonplant>
2 : impregnated with poison poison arrow>

poison poi·son (poi'zən)
n.

A substance taken internally or applied externally that is injurious to health or dangerous to life.
A chemical substance that inhibits another substance or a reaction.

v. poi·soned, poi·son·ing, poi·sons
To kill or harm with poison.

Poison

(1.) Heb. hemah, "heat," the poison of certain venomous reptiles (Deut. 32:24, 33; Job 6:4; Ps. 58:4), causing inflammation. (2.) Heb. rosh, "a head," a poisonous plant (Deut. 29:18), growing luxuriantly (Hos. 10:4), of a bitter taste (Ps. 69:21; Lam. 3:5), and coupled with wormwood; probably the poppy. This word is rendered "gall", q.v., (Deut. 29:18; 32:33; Ps. 69:21; Jer. 8:14, etc.), "hemlock" (Hos. 10:4; Amos 6:12), and "poison" (Job 20:16), "the poison of asps," showing that the _rosh_ was not exclusively a vegetable poison. (3.) In Rom. 3:13 (comp. Job 20:16; Ps. 140:3), James 3:8, as the rendering of the Greek ios.

Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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poison

In addition to the idiom beginning with poison, also see one man's meat is another man's poison.

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