lethal dose

British

noun

LD. the amount of a drug or other agent that if administered to an animal or human will prove fatal See also median lethal dose

"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

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.

The Westminster bill would not allow doctors to give a lethal dose – rather patients would have to self-administer the drugs, usually by swallowing them.

From BBC • Apr. 3, 2025

Yes, yes, I hear you say, but didn’t the Doctor bury Donna’s memory in order to keep her head from exploding when she absorbed a lethal dose of Time Lord mojo?

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 24, 2023

In toxicology, the median lethal dose, or LD50, is the approximate dose required to kill half the animals in a population being studied.

From Salon • Jul. 26, 2023

Nearly every state that has MAiD allows terminally ill adults with less than six months to live to ask doctors for a lethal dose of drugs that they can then ingest themselves, typically at home.

From Washington Times • Feb. 22, 2023

I shake it—and quite sure I experience close to a lethal dose of electricity.

From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023