antidote

[an-ti-doht]

noun

1. a medicine or other remedy for counteracting the effects of poison, disease, etc.

2. something that prevents or counteracts injurious or unwanted effects.

   Good jobs are the best antidote to teenage crime.

verb (used with object)

antidoted, antidoting 

1. to counteract with an antidote.

   Medication was given to antidote the poison the child had swallowed.

antidote

/ ˈæntɪˌdəʊt /

noun

1. med a drug or agent that counteracts or neutralizes the effects of a poison

2. anything that counteracts or relieves a harmful or unwanted condition; remedy

antidote

1. A substance that counteracts the effects of a poison.

Other Word Forms

• antidotal adjective
• antidotical adjective
• antidotally adverb
• antidotically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of antidote¹

1400–50; late Middle English (< Middle French ) < Latin antidotum < Greek antídoton something given against (i.e., for counteracting), equivalent to anti- anti- + dotón neuter of dotós given, verbid of didónai to give; akin to datum

Word History and Origins

Origin of antidote¹

C15: from Latin antidotum, from Greek antidoton something given as a countermeasure, from _anti- + didonai to give

Example Sentences

In a world that’s increasingly digital, live sports is the antidote.

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In the architectural age of minimalism and millennial gray, a wild and whimsical antidote made of old clinker bricks and jumbled shingles sits on a quiet street at the edge of L.A. and Culver City.

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Afghanistan’s internecine bloodshed has an epiphanic effect on the author: “When death stalks every door,” she writes in a burst of originality, “the only antidote is to live.”

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While she’s at the high end of the field, concierge medicine is thriving—appealing both to doctors and consumers as an antidote to America’s strained medical system.

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“It’s this weird antidote he has to his ‘the world is going to blow up’ theory,” she said.

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Related Words

• corrective 
• countermeasure 
• cure 
• remedy