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

Not all robins receive a lethal dose, but another consequence may lead to the extinction of their kind as surely as fatal poisoning.

From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson

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