heroin
[her-oh-in]
- a white, crystalline, narcotic powder, C21H23NO5, derived from morphine, formerly used as an analgesic and sedative: manufacture and importation of heroin are now controlled by federal law in the U.S. because of the danger of addiction.
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Origin of heroin
Also called diacetylmorphine, diamorphine.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for heroin
Contemporary Examples
The correspondent does a stand-up next to a burning pile of heroin and gets a taste of its effect.
Like many rock stars of the time, Ramone lived there on-and-off for a time; he even detoxed from heroin there once.
‘All Good Cretins Go to Heaven’: Dee Dee Ramone’s Twisted Punk PaintingsMelissa Leon
December 15, 2014
It remains a Schedule I narcotic to this day, considered as dangerous and addictive by the federal government as heroin and MDMA.
Pot-Smoking Grannies, Jimmy Fallon Covers U2, and More Viral VideosThe Daily Beast Video
November 23, 2014
The journey ends with Cooke discovering Joplin in her hotel room after she has overdosed on heroin.
That star would all too famously implode with her tragic death from a heroin overdose at a mere 27 years of age.
Historical Examples
At this writing the most harmful form of opiate with which we have to deal is heroin.
Habits that HandicapCharles B. Towns
Heroin in doses of from 1/24th to 1/12th grain is often of service.
Manual of SurgeryAlexis Thomson and Alexander Miles
Heroin hydrochloride has been tried in their place, but this seems to have more power over slight than over severe cases.
Another is a society woman who was given a dose of heroin and that one dose proved sufficient for her undoing.
Heart and SoulVictor Mapes (AKA Maveric Post)
At the beginning of my Administration there were over a half million heroin addicts in the United States.
heroin
- a white odourless bitter-tasting crystalline powder related to morphine: a highly addictive narcotic. Formula: C 21 H 23 NO 5Technical names: diamorphine, diacetylmorphine
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Word Origin
C19: coined in German as a trademark, probably from hero, referring to its aggrandizing effect on the personality
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for heroin
n.
1898, from German Heroin, coined 1898 as trademark registered by Friedrich Bayer & Co. for their morphine substitute, traditionally from Greek heros (see hero (n.1)) because of the euphoric feeling the drug provides, but no evidence for this seems to have been found so far.
A new hypnotic, to which the name of "heroin" has been given, has been tried in the medical clinic of Professor Gerhardt in Berlin. ["The Lancet," Dec. 3, 1898]
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
heroin
(hĕr′ō-ĭn)- A white, bitter, crystalline compound that is derived from morphine and is a highly addictive narcotic.diacetylmorphine
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
heroin
[hĕr′ō-ĭn]
- A white, odorless, bitter crystalline compound, C17H17NO(C2H3O2)2, that is derived from morphine and is a highly addictive narcotic.
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The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.