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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

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

See Examples For:

drug Drug drugs drugged drugging

After incompatible transfusions were followed by signs of red blood cell destruction, clinicians used sutimlimab, a drug that blocks part of the immune complement pathway.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

Prof Niamh Nic Daeid, director of Dundee University's Leverhulme laboratory, said its expanded role as a national drug testing and research centre would make a difference too.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

Your morning catch-up: SoCal remembers two news veterans, the driver accused in a fatal Metro bus crash had multiple drug arrests and more big stories.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

After the post circulated, Trump held a press briefing from the Oval Office to discuss drug pricing.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026

This would guarantee sales for the drug companies and motivate them to produce the drugs at cheap prices.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

Drug companies generally have to sponsor large clinical trials to receive FDA approval for additional indications, and insurers don’t typically cover a drug until it is FDA approved.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

Their use as a topping for sorbets at Evett came to light after the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety found online reviews accompanied by photographs.

From BBC ● Sep. 16, 2026

Vera Therapeutics takes a step toward securing full Food and Drug Administration approval for its injectable kidney drug, Trutakna.

From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026

The Food and Drug Administration approved Shingrix, a recombinant vaccine, in 2017, and it quickly became the go-to shingles vaccine after its launch in early 2018.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026

Insecticide residues have been recovered from human milk in samples tested by Food and Drug Administration Scientists.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

The Hindenburg disaster, wonder drugs, Marian Anderson’s voice, a rock ’n’ roll alternate history and more.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

Fennell is one of dozens of people suing Novo, maker of the popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, claiming the medication caused this side effect.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026

These drugs can help patients manage blood sugar, lower cardiovascular risk, and, in many cases, lose a substantial amount of weight.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026

Kaestner emphasized that this does not prove GLP-1 drugs have no effects outside physical health.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 18, 2026

TB experts had declared MDR treatment inordinately expensive, but no one had tried to reduce the main expense, which was high-priced drugs.

From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French

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

Cohen has pointed out there is no forensic evidence that anyone was drugged and noted that all but one of the women waited more than a decade to report their alleged assault to law enforcement.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 16, 2023

But I am convinced that at twenty-three minutes to one Ratchett was still lying in his drugged sleep.

From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie

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

Masterson’s attorney, Philip Cohen, said in the defense opening statement Monday that those assertions are all the prosecution has, and he told jurors, “there is no drugging charge in this case.”

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 25, 2023

Now, in 1858, he has a very large family, many of whom have either arrived at maturity or nearly so; and the whole family have, for many years, been strangers to dosing and drugging.

From Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders Cogitations and Confessions of an Aged Physician by William A. (William Andrus) Alcott

Related Words

• cure
• medicine
• narcotic
• pharmaceutical
• pill
• poison
• prescription
• remedy
• stimulant