noxious
Americanadjective
-
harmful or injurious to health or physical well-being.
noxious fumes.
- Synonyms:
- deleterious , detrimental , nocuous , unhealthy , unwholesome , hurtful
- Antonyms:
- harmless
-
morally harmful; corrupting; pernicious.
a noxious plan to spread dissension.
- Synonyms:
- corruptive
- Antonyms:
- harmless
adjective
-
poisonous or harmful
-
harmful to the mind or morals; corrupting
Other Word Forms
- noxiously adverb
- noxiousness noun
Etymology
Origin of noxious
1605–15; < Latin noxius harmful, hurtful, injurious, equivalent to nox ( a ) harm, hurt, injury (akin to nocēre to do harm, inflict injury; innocent ) + -ius -ious
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It's hard enough to stop things getting noxious even when two title rivals are in different teams, such as in the tense relationship between Hamilton and Max Verstappen in 2021.
From BBC
A vast canyon of buried garbage has been smoldering inside a landfill in the Santa Clarita Valley, inducing geysers of liquid waste onto the surface and noxious fumes into the air.
From Los Angeles Times
But if you do get stuck, make sure snow does not block the exhaust, because noxious fumes can leak into the vehicle.
From BBC
A large swath of the country, from eastern Washington to western Arkansas, is currently facing an avalanche of hard and spiky bouncing beach-balls of the noxious, unpleasant weed.
The depressing reality is that the noxious notions of Messrs. Carlson and Fuentes, while nowhere near dominant on the American right, have been gaining in popularity.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
