Agent Orange

American  

noun

1. a powerful herbicide and defoliant containing trace amounts of dioxin, a toxic impurity suspected of causing serious health problems, including cancer and genetic damage, in some persons exposed to it and birth defects in their offspring: used by U.S. armed forces during the Vietnam War to defoliate jungles.

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Agent Orange British  

noun

1. a highly poisonous herbicide used as a spray for defoliation and crop destruction, esp by US forces during the Vietnam War

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Agent Orange Scientific  

1. A mixture of equal amounts of two herbicides known as 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, and trace amounts of the toxic contaminant dioxin (a byproduct of the manufacture of 2,4,5-T). It was used in the Vietnam War to defoliate areas of forest.

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Etymology

Origin of Agent Orange

First recorded in 1965–70; so called from the color of the identifying stripe on the drums in which it was stored

Example Sentences

Suspecting an environmental link, the scientists and officials considered various possible culprits, from a rare moose-borne parasite to blue-green algae blooms to Agent Orange sprayed on the province in the 1970s.

From BBC

Williams was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2015, he suspects, because of his exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide used by the U.S. military to reduce enemy cover in the Vietnamese jungle.

From Salon

That led to a ban on domestic use and suspension of Agent Orange use by the military in April 1970, with the last mission flown in early 1971.

From Salon

He died in 1994 at 45 years old from cancer likely related to Agent Orange exposure, and local advocates have worked for years to contextualize his crimes with his service-related mental illness.

From Los Angeles Times

The shutdown left exposed open pits of soil contaminated with dioxin, the deadly byproduct of Agent Orange, which the American military sprayed across large swaths of the country during the Vietnam War.

From Salon