Dictionary
Thesaurus
Reference
Translate
Web
Related Searches
on Ask.com
Synonyms
Nearby Entries
Definition of poisoned - 2 dictionary results

poi⋅son

  [poi-zuhn]
Use poisoned in a Sentence
–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.
Cite This Source Link To poisoned
poi·son   (poi'zən)   
n.  
  1. A substance that causes injury, illness, or death, especially by chemical means.
  2. Something destructive or fatal.
  3. Chemistry & Physics A substance that inhibits another substance or a reaction: a catalyst poison.
tr.v.   poi·soned, poi·son·ing, poi·sons
  1. To kill or harm with poison.
  2. 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.
  4. 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.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see poisoned on Thesaurus | Reference