poison
poison [poiʹzən] noun
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.
verb, transitive
poisoned, poisoning, poisons
1. To kill or harm with poison.
2. To put poison on or into: poisoning arrows; poisoned the drink.
3. a. To pollute: Noxious fumes poison the air. See synonyms at contaminate. b. To have a harmful influence on; corrupt: Jealousy poisoned their friendship.
4. Chemistry & Physics. To inhibit [a substance or reaction].
adjective
Poisonous.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin pōtiō, pōtiōn-, drink.]
poiʹsoner noun
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, which meant "the act of drinking, a drink, or a liquid dose, as of a medicine or poison." Our word potion retains the form of the Latin word [actually the form of the stem pōtiōn-] and the "dose" sense, although it 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. 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.