poison
noun
- substance that causes disturbances to organisms
verb
- to administer poison to, put poison on or in something
- to kill or make extremely sick via poison
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈpɔɪ.zən/ / /ˈpoɪ.zən/
noun
Etymology: From Middle English poysoun, poyson, pusoun, from Old French poison, poisun, from Latin pōtiōnem (“drink, a draught, a poisonous draught, a potion”), from pōtō (“to drink”). See also potion and potable (from the same root). Mostly displaced native Old English ātor. See more at atter.
- A substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism when ingested.
“Near-synonym: (loosely) venom”
“We used a poison to kill the weeds.”
- Anything harmful to a person or thing.
“Gossip is a malicious poison.”
“Awaie with the Rebels ſuffer them not to ſpeake, His words are poyſon in the eares of the people, […]”
- An alcoholic drink. (Mainly in the phrases "name your poison" and "what's your poison?")
“— What's your poison? — I'll have a glass of whiskey.”
- Any substance that inhibits catalytic activity.
“The temperature effect of poisons. The influence of poison on the catalyst can be different with the change of reaction conditions.”
verb
Etymology: From Middle English poysoun, poyson, pusoun, from Old French poison, poisun, from Latin pōtiōnem (“drink, a draught, a poisonous draught, a potion”), from pōtō (“to drink”). See also potion and potable (from the same root). Mostly displaced native Old English ātor. See more at atter.
- To use poison to kill or paralyse (somebody).
“The assassin poisoned the king.”
- To pollute; to cause to become poisonous.
“That factory is poisoning the river.”
- To cause to become much worse.
“Suspicion will poison their relationship.”
“He poisoned the mood in the room with his non-stop criticism.”
- To cause (someone) to hate or to have unfair negative opinions.
“She's poisoned him against all his old friends.”
- To inhibit the catalytic activity of.
- To place false or malicious data into (a cache, etc.) as part of an exploit.
“In this technique, the hacker poisons the cache to launch malware into Web pages.”