poisons

noun

A substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism when ingested.

(figuratively) Anything harmful to a person or thing.

(informal, idiomatic) An alcoholic drink. (Mainly in the phrases "name your poison" and "what's your poison?")

(chemistry) Any substance that inhibits catalytic activity.

verb

(transitive) To use poison to kill or paralyse (somebody).

(transitive) To pollute; to cause to become poisonous.

(transitive) To cause to become much worse.

(transitive) To cause (someone) to hate or to have unfair negative opinions.

(chemistry) To inhibit the catalytic activity of.

(transitive, computing) To place false or malicious data into (a cache, etc.) as part of an exploit.

Roots

potopois- · Latin · drink, potion

Synonyms & related words for poisons

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Words related to poisons

Explore words related to poisons — words associated with it, words that go with it, and its nearest matches in meaning. Related words include envenom, empoison, toxicant, alexipharmic, antiar, poisoned, poisonous, toxicogenic. Click any word to make it the center of the map and keep exploring the web of connections.

Where does poisons come from?

The word poisons breaks down into one root of Latin origin: the root pois-, from Latin poto (“drink, potion”). Explore each root to see other English words built from the same source.