poison

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English

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Etymology

From Middle English poisoun, poyson, poysone, puyson, puisun, from Old French poison, poison, from Latin pōtio, pōtiōnis (“drink, a draught, a poisonous draught, a potion”), from pōtō (“I drink”). See also potion and potable (from the same root).

Displaced native Old English ātor.

Pronunciation

  • enPR: poi'zən, IPA(key): /ˈpɔɪz(ə)n/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔɪzən
  • Hyphenation: poi‧son

Noun

poison (countable and uncountable, plural poisons)

  1. A substance that is harmful or lethal to a living organism when ingested.
    We used a poison to kill the weeds.
  2. (figuratively) Anything harmful to a person or thing.
    Gossip is a malicious poison.
  3. (informal) An intoxicating drink; a liquor. (Mainly in the phrases "name your poison" and "what's your poison ?")
    — What's your poison?
    — I'll have a glass of whiskey.
  4. (chemistry) Any substance that inhibits catalytic activity.
    • 2013, Huazhang Liu, Ammonia Synthesis Catalysts: Innovation and Practice, page 693:
      The temperature effect of poisons. The influence of poison on the catalyst can be different with the change of reaction conditions.

Usage notes

  • Not to be confused with venom

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

poison (third-person singular simple present poisons, present participle poisoning, simple past and past participle poisoned)

  1. (transitive) To use poison to kill or paralyse (somebody).
    The assassin poisoned the king.
  2. (transitive) To pollute; to cause to become poisonous.
    That factory is poisoning the river.
  3. (transitive) To cause to become much worse.
    Suspicion will poison their relationship.
    He poisoned the mood in the room with his non-stop criticism.
  4. (transitive) To cause (someone) to hate or to have unfair negative opinions.
    She's poisoned him against all his old friends.
  5. (chemistry) To inhibit the catalytic activity of.
  6. (transitive, computing) To place false information into (a cache) as part of an exploit.
    • 2013, Ronald L. Mendell, Investigating Information-based Crimes, page 93:
      In this technique, the hacker poisons the cache to launch malware into Web pages.

Usage notes

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

References

French

Etymology

From Old French poison, inherited from Latin pōtiōnem. Doublet of potion, a borrowing.

Pronunciation

Noun

poison m (plural poisons)

  1. poison
    Poisson sans boisson est poison. ― Fish without drink is poison.

Derived terms

Further reading

Middle English

Noun

poison

  1. Alternative form of poisoun

Old French

Etymology

From Latin pōtiōnem, accusative singular of pōtio.

Noun

poison oblique singular, f (oblique plural poisons, nominative singular poison, nominative plural poisons)

  1. poison
  2. potion

Descendants

  • → Middle English: poisoun
  • French: poison

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from French poison. Doublet of poción.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈpoison/
  • Rhymes: -oison
  • Syllabification: poi‧son

Noun

poison m (plural póisones)

  1. (Louisiana) poison
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