# poison

/ˈpɔɪzən/ (US) · /pˈɔɪzən/ (UK)

Source: https://englishreference.com/word/poison
Updated: 2026-06-19

## Senses

### 1. toxic substance

noun · CEFR B1

a substance that causes illness or death if it enters the body.

For teachers: a substance that, through its chemical action, usually kills, injures, or impairs an organism.

- The label on the bottle had a skull to show it contained poison.
- The forensic report confirmed that the victim had ingested a lethal dose of a rare organic poison shortly before collapsing.

### 2. harmful influence

noun · CEFR B2

something that has a very bad or harmful effect on a person or situation.

For teachers: an object, influence, or idea that is destructive or corrupting to the mind or a social environment.

- Jealousy can be a poison that destroys even the strongest friendships.
- The spread of misinformation acted as a poison within the community, eroding trust in local institutions and creating deep social divisions.

### 3. alcoholic drink

noun · CEFR C1 · Informal · Humorous

a humorous way to refer to an alcoholic drink.

For teachers: a slang reference to an alcoholic beverage, typically used when offering a choice of drinks.

- Step up to the bar and name your poison.
- After a long week at the office, he turned to his colleague and asked, 'What's your poison tonight?'

Teaching tip: This is almost exclusively used in the fixed phrases 'name your poison' or 'what's your poison' in social settings.

### 4. to kill with toxins

verb · CEFR B1

to kill or harm a person or animal using a toxic substance.

For teachers: to administer poison to a person or animal; to kill or injure by means of a toxin.

- The king was afraid that his enemies would try to poison his food.
- The assassin attempted to poison the diplomat by coating the handle of the car door with a fast-acting nerve agent.

### 5. to ruin or corrupt

verb · CEFR B2

to make a situation or someone's mind bad or hateful.

For teachers: to corrupt or pervert the character or quality of something; to embitter a person's mind.

- Don't let his lies poison your opinion of the rest of the team.
- The constant stream of negative propaganda served to poison the minds of the youth against their neighbours.

### 6. to pollute

verb · CEFR B2

to make a place, like a river or the air, dirty and dangerous.

For teachers: to contaminate an environment with harmful substances.

- Chemicals from the old factory continued to poison the local river for years.
- Industrial runoff began to poison the groundwater, leading to a significant decline in the health of the local ecosystem.

### 7. to corrupt data

verb · CEFR C1 · Technical

to put false information into a computer system to break it.

For teachers: to introduce malicious or false data into a cache or database to subvert a system's operations.

- The hackers tried to poison the server's cache to redirect users to a fake website.
- DNS cache poisoning remains a significant threat, as it allows attackers to intercept traffic by providing false IP addresses to legitimate requests.

## Examples

- The label on the bottle warned that it contained poison.
- Gardeners often use a specific poison to stop pests from eating their vegetables during the summer months.
- The investigator suspected that the victim had ingested a slow-acting poison, as the symptoms only manifested several days after the initial exposure to the toxic substance.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.