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• drug
  drug

  noun

  a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being.
• Drug
  Drug

  noun

  the cosmic principle of disorder and falsehood.

drug

¹ American  

[druhg] / drʌg /

noun

• drugs
  plural

1. Pharmacology. a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being.

2. (in federal law)

   1. any substance recognized in the official pharmacopoeia or formulary of the nation.

   2. any substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in humans or other animals.

   3. any article, other than food, intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or other animals.

   4. any substance intended for use as a component of such a drug, but not a device or a part of a device.

3. a habit-forming medicinal or illicit substance, especially a narcotic.

4. drugs,

   1. chemical substances prepared and sold as pharmaceutical items, either by prescription or over the counter.

   2. personal hygienic items sold in a drugstore, as toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.

5. Obsolete. any ingredient used in chemistry, pharmacy, dyeing, or the like.

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verb (used with object)

drugged, drugging

1. to administer a medicinal drug to.

2. to stupefy or poison with a drug.

3. to mix (food or drink) with a drug, especially a stupefying, narcotic, or poisonous drug.

4. to administer anything nauseous to.

verb phrase

1. drug up to take a drug, especially an illegal drug: athletes who drug up in the off-season.

   kids hiding under the school bleachers to drug up;

   athletes who drug up in the off-season.

idioms

1. drug on the market, a commodity that is overabundant or in excess of demand in the market. Also drug in the market.

drug ² American  

[druhg] / drʌg /

verb

Nonstandard: Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S.

1. a simple past tense and past participle of drag.

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Drug ³ American  

[droog] / drʊg /

noun

Zoroastrianism.

1. the cosmic principle of disorder and falsehood.

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drug British  

/ drʌɡ /

noun

1. any synthetic, semisynthetic, or natural chemical substance used in the treatment, prevention, or diagnosis of disease, or for other medical reasons

2. a chemical substance, esp a narcotic, taken for the pleasant effects it produces

3. a commodity available in excess of the demands of the market

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verb

1. to mix a drug with (food, drink, etc)

2. to administer a drug to

3. to stupefy or poison with or as if with a drug

drug Scientific  

/ drŭg /

1. A chemical substance, especially one prescribed by a medical provider, that is used in the diagnosis, treatment, or prevention of a condition or disease. Drugs are prescribed for a limited amount of time, as for an acute infection, or on a regular basis for chronic disorders, such as hypertension.

2. A chemical substance such as a narcotic or a hallucinogen that affects the central nervous system and is used recreationally for perceived desirable effects on personality, perception, or behavior. Many recreational drugs are used illicitly and can be addictive.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• druggy
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• drugs
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of drug¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English drogges (plural), from Middle French drogue, of obscure origin

Origin of Drug³

From the Avestan word drauga

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Explanation

A drug is a medicine. Before you travel to India, your doctor may prescribe a drug to protect you from getting malaria. A substance that makes a change in your body is a drug. Most often, a drug is medicine prescribed by a doctor to protect a patient from illness, cure them, or relieve their pain. Drug also means an illegal substance taken simply for the way it makes the user feel. Drug is also a verb that describes both taking illegal drugs and giving someone a drug secretly, such as slipping it into their food or drink.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

drug Drug drugs drugged drugging

Maritime drones powered by sun and wind that can stay at sea for months will patrol Fiji's waters for drug traffickers and other threats under a deal with Australia announced Friday.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

In clinical trials, severe multiple myeloma patients who took Zenbexus on top of two existing treatments lived 42 months before their cancer got worse, compared with 20 months for those without Bristol’s drug.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026

Aducanumab became the first drug of this type to receive accelerated approval from the FDA, although it is no longer sold.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026

It is also when beneficiaries can join, drop or switch between Medicare drug plans or change their Medicare Advantage plans.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026

The fact that a clear majority of Americans were telling pollsters in the early 1980s—when the drug war was kicking off—that they opposed race discrimination in nearly all its forms should not be dismissed lightly.

From "The New Jim Crow" by Michelle Alexander

Drug manufacturers have refused to sell their products for executions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 12, 2026

What measures is the Food and Drug Administration taking to boost confidence in the U.S. food supply chain?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026

Food and Drug Administration can both stop osteoarthritis pain and prevent the structural breakdown of cartilage.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026

Eli Lilly’s experimental cancer treatment, olomorasib, receives orphan drug designation from the Food and Drug Administration.

From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026

The files of the Food and Drug Administration contain records of a disturbing number of such violations.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

Squeezed shoppers are trading down to store brands and tastes are shifting toward healthier foods amid a rise in the use of weight-loss drugs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 17, 2026

Needham thinks Victoria’s Secret stock is poised to benefit from the increased adoption of weight-loss drugs.

From Barron's ● Oct. 16, 2026

These companies are doing what they do best, investing in the pipelines of the future and extending the patent lives of their top-selling drugs.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 15, 2026

They did not find any drugs, but vipers, rattlesnakes and other species of snakes and lizards, including iguanas, hidden in shampoo and cream bottles, plastic containers and balls of socks.

From BBC ● Oct. 15, 2026

She sits at my head, keeping an eye on all my vitals, adjusting the amounts of the fluids and gases and drugs they’re giving me.

From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

Van Houten said his office did not bring charges at the time because he had only seen a statement from Doe implying the incident was consensual and that she had not been drugged.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

Had Raynella drugged him and staged an accident?

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026

"He arrived with brain trauma, sedated, drugged, breathing with a ventilator," Interior Minister Armando Benedetti said.

From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2025

Mr. Olson was working at Fort Detrick and was unwittingly drugged with LSD in a CIA mind-control experiment that ended with him falling to his death from a New York hotel window.

From Washington Times ● Dec. 6, 2023

By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning hammerblows of conditioning, the free, roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, drugged.

From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

With her brown bobbed haircut and round sunglasses, Pelicot has become an international feminist symbol, inspiring a change to French rape laws and a public reckoning with the problem of drugging women.

From Barron's ● Feb. 11, 2026

If there is widespread dog drugging, I certainly didn’t find that or hear about it, and I asked some questions along those lines.

From Salon ● Apr. 23, 2024

This new information could prove to be especially useful to drug developers hoping to create a new cancer treatment by drugging this interaction.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 15, 2023

Defense attorney Philip Cohen made clear to jurors that ”there is no drugging charge.”

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 1, 2023

An hour dragged out its weary length, and the half of another while he reasoned with himself, drugging his conscience and his judgment alike with trust in his lucky star.

From The Destroying Angel by Louis Joseph Vance

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