poison
verb/ˈpɔɪzn/
/ˈpɔɪzn/
Verb Forms
Idioms | present simple I / you / we / they poison | /ˈpɔɪzn/ /ˈpɔɪzn/ |
| he / she / it poisons | /ˈpɔɪznz/ /ˈpɔɪznz/ |
| past simple poisoned | /ˈpɔɪznd/ /ˈpɔɪznd/ |
| past participle poisoned | /ˈpɔɪznd/ /ˈpɔɪznd/ |
| -ing form poisoning | /ˈpɔɪzənɪŋ/ /ˈpɔɪzənɪŋ/ |
- to harm or kill a person or an animal by giving them poison
- poison somebody/yourself He was believed to poison his enemies.
- Thousands are at risk of being poisoned by fumes from faulty heaters.
- Poisoning the rats is expensive and harmful to the environment.
- poison somebody/yourself with something In the last chapter, she poisons herself with arsenic.
Definitions on the go
Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.
- to put poison in or on something
- poison something a poisoned arrow
- Someone had been poisoning his food.
- Large sections of the river have been poisoned by toxic waste from factories.
- Exhaust fumes are poisoning our cities.
- poison something with something The chocolates had been poisoned with cyanide.
- poison something to have a bad effect on something
- His comment served only to poison the atmosphere still further.
- She succeeded in poisoning their minds against me.
- I hope that if we do have disagreements they won't poison our relationship.
Word OriginMiddle English (denoting a harmful medicinal draught): from Old French poison ‘magic potion’, from Latin potio(n-) ‘potion’, related to potare ‘to drink’.
Idioms
See poison in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee poison in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englisha poisoned chalice
- (especially British English) a thing that seems attractive when it is given to somebody but which soon becomes unpleasant
- He inherited a poisoned chalice when he took over the job as union leader.
Check pronunciation:
poison