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
Until I know the drug test results, I feel obliged to keep looking for jobs.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
The panel assembled to advise the US Food and Drug Administration backed semax and epitalon on Friday.
From Barron's ● Jul. 24, 2026
Food and Drug Administration announced it was initiating a traceback investigation into a second cyclosporiasis outbreak.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
Food and Drug Administration recently extended its deadline to decide on the drug’s authorization to review updated results from the clinical trial that was the basis for AstraZeneca’s regulatory submissions, the company said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 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
She had made it with a penny test tube bought at Knipe’s Drug Store.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Soon it will increasingly help discover new knowledge—from discovering new drugs to cure a family member’s disease to finding new ways to improve your business.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 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
Investments will follow market access to the most innovative drugs, and countries that five or ten years ago would have approved medicines later than Europe are now moving faster, he says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026
Last month's trial results showed that its new pill appears to help people lose a similar amount of weight to other GLP-1 oral drugs.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
Those companies that did make MDR drugs could pretty much name their own price.
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
The warm room lulled his blood and a deepening sense of fatigue drugged him with sleep.
From "Native Son" by Richard Wright
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
The law sets minimum standards of care that nursing homes must meet to receive Medicaid reimbursement, and it specifically prohibits drugging nursing home residents for “purposes of discipline or convenience.”
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 29, 2022
The careful hygienic and dietetic treatment, combined with the least amount of drugging, is the best and most rational method of treatment.
From Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension: with Chapters on Blood Pressure, 3rd Edition. by Warfield, Louis Marshall
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.
