Pharmacology. a chemical substance used in the treatment, cure, prevention, or diagnosis of disease or used to otherwise enhance physical or mental well-being.
(in federal law)
any substance recognized in the official pharmacopoeia or formulary of the nation.
any substance intended for use in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease in humans or other animals.
any article, other than food, intended to affect the structure or any function of the body of humans or other animals.
any substance intended for use as a component of such a drug, but not a device or a part of a device.
a habit-forming medicinal or illicit substance, especially a narcotic.
drugs,
chemical substances prepared and sold as pharmaceutical items, either by prescription or over the counter.
personal hygienic items sold in a drugstore, as toothpaste, mouthwash, etc.
Obsolete. any ingredient used in chemistry, pharmacy, dyeing, or the like.
to administer a medicinal drug to.
to stupefy or poison with a drug.
to mix (food or drink) with a drug, especially a stupefying, narcotic, or poisonous drug.
to administer anything nauseous to.
any synthetic, semisynthetic, or natural chemical substance used in the treatment, prevention, or diagnosis of disease, or for other medical reasons
a chemical substance, esp a narcotic, taken for the pleasant effects it produces
a commodity available in excess of the demands of the market
to mix a drug with (food, drink, etc)
to administer a drug to
to stupefy or poison with or as if with a drug
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.
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.
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English drogges (plural), from Middle French drogue, of obscure origin
From the Avestan word drauga
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.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Since returning to office in 2025, US President Donald Trump has intensified efforts against Latin American drug cartels and their operations.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has said it started the program in 2025 to hold drug prices steady.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
The pharmaceutical industry, meanwhile, was eager to create “the next blockbuster drug, something on the order of Thorazine and Valium.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Medicare is scrapping a temporary program that helped keep the price of monthly premiums in check for older adults with Part D prescription drug plans.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 28, 2026
No more being stuck inside whitewashed buildings all over the world as doctors try drug after drug, treatment after treatment, none of them working.
From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott
The panel recommendations are not binding, but the Food and Drug Administration historically has given them significant weight.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
A group of experts advising the Food and Drug Administration voted “no” for the first time on reclassifying a peptide, citing safety and efficacy unknowns.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 24, 2026
The Food and Drug Administration last week said it traced the bug to Taco Bell iceberg lettuce.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026
The case came to light after officials from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety found reviews that diners had posted online with photographs of dishes sprinkled with ants.
From BBC ● Jul. 22, 2026
If the farmer scrupulously follows the instructions on the labels, his use of agricultural chemicals will produce no residues larger than are permitted by the Food and Drug Administration.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
American policymakers should concentrate their efforts on accelerating the domestic AI industry and eliminating bottlenecks that would slow down AI-bred innovations such as new drugs, he said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
In the past 10 years the drugs have increasingly been made available to more cancer patients in Northern Ireland.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
It is also a powerful reminder of the ordeal of serious mental illness and the ever-pressing need to find better drugs to treat it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Almost half of all children living with HIV were not receiving these drugs last year, the report warned.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Politely he asks if there is a way that he can pay for his care, as well as the antibiotics and the anti-inflammatory drugs.
From "Enrique's Journey" by Sonia Nazario
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
Death for the terminally ill can often be cruel and slow, physicians told the BBC, with the patient's final days spent slipping in and out of a drugged consciousness.
From BBC ● Jan. 13, 2023
My mind felt slow, drugged with the strain of thought.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
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
About half the complaints that California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform receives about inappropriate drugging of residents involve Depakote, said Anthony Chicotel, the group’s top lawyer.
From New York Times ● Sep. 11, 2021
And finally he had great faith in the water, as you have already seen; whereas he had lost all faith in drugging and dosing.
From Forty Years in the Wilderness of Pills and Powders Cogitations and Confessions of an Aged Physician by Alcott, William A. (William Andrus)
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.
