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
1 American
[druhg]
/ drʌg /
noun
-
drugs
plural
-
Pharmacology. a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being.
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(in federal law)
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any substance recognized in the official pharmacopoeia or formulary of the nation.
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any substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in humans or other animals.
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any article, other than food, intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or other animals.
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any substance intended for use as a component of such a drug, but not a device or a part of a device.
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a habit-forming medicinal or illicit substance, especially a narcotic.
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drugs,
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chemical substances prepared and sold as pharmaceutical items, either by prescription or over the counter.
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personal hygienic items sold in a drugstore, as toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.
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Obsolete. any ingredient used in chemistry, pharmacy, dyeing, or the like.
verb (used with object)
drugged,
drugging
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to administer a medicinal drug to.
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to stupefy or poison with a drug.
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to mix (food or drink) with a drug, especially a stupefying, narcotic, or poisonous drug.
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to administer anything nauseous to.
verb phrase
idioms
drug
2
American
[druhg]
/ drʌg /
verb
Nonstandard: Chiefly Midland and Southern U.S.
Drug
3
American
[droog]
/ drʊg /
noun
Zoroastrianism.
drug
British
/ drʌɡ /
noun
-
any synthetic, semisynthetic, or natural chemical substance used in the treatment, prevention, or diagnosis of disease, or for other medical reasons
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a chemical substance, esp a narcotic, taken for the pleasant effects it produces
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a commodity available in excess of the demands of the market
verb
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to mix a drug with (food, drink, etc)
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to administer a drug to
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to stupefy or poison with or as if with a drug
drug
Scientific
/ drŭg /
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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.
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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.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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
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
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Revolution Medicines is building its own sales force, distribution network and reimbursement operation to bring the drug to market.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
The AI strategy developed by the team could also be useful for other scientific problems involving enormous numbers of possible experiments, including drug discovery.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026
Students will spend four years learning to build the technology and to apply it to fields as far apart as drug discovery, robotics and agriculture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 27, 2026
That’s in addition to other problems: an anticipated “bump” in weight-loss drug sales, from Medicare covering its Wegovy weight-loss drug for cardiovascular patients, is “looking limited.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
From his PhD research on Korean pharmaceutical companies, Jim knew that the price of a drug to the public often had little to do with the costs of manufacturing or distributing it.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a treatment for pancreatic cancer that, in clinical trials, nearly doubled the overall survival time for patients.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
The trial could begin by the end of the year, pending approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 25, 2026
The Food and Drug Administration has approved Moderna’s mRNA vaccines for the flu and RSV as well.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026
Another factor is President Donald Trump’s nomination on Wednesday afternoon of a new Food and Drug Administration commissioner, which grants some certainty to investors who have been unsure about the future direction of the regulator.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 19, 2026
Farmers nowadays find it difficult to obtain uncontaminated fodder for their milk cows, though the Food and Drug Administration forbids the presence of insecticide residues in milk shipped in interstate commerce.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Maccani was suffering from an apparent bipolar episode, his family said; an autopsy revealed that he didn’t have any drugs in his system when he died.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
Morgansaid earlier this week that the Wall Street bank expects the event to focus on an overview of the pipeline, including updates on next-generation weight-loss and diabetes drugs as well as general strategy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Also read: How Ozempic maker Novo Nordisk blew its lead in GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026
The team is now studying whether FDA-approved inhibitor drugs could be used to suppress C3 production and potentially slow aspects of aging in humans.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 26, 2026
Sometimes, he had really bad aches, especially in his legs, and he was tired a lot of the time, and the chemotherapy drugs were making him feel pretty rotten physically.
From "Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie" by Jordan Sonnenblick
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
Phillip Cohen, one of Masterson’s defense attorneys, has repeatedly noted that prosecutors have zero forensic evidence to prove the victims were drugged.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 31, 2023
Like the prisoner she was, she lived on bread and water, though she was sure the water must be drugged.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
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
Chaptal recommends this also; and everybody knows that this drugging produces sometimes advantageous results, sometimes pernicious and detestable effects.
From System of Economical Contradictions; or, the Philosophy of Misery by P.-J. (Pierre-Joseph) Proudhon
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.
