poisonous
Americanadjective
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full of or containing poison.
poisonous air; a poisonous substance.
-
harmful; destructive.
poisonous to animals; poisonous rumors.
-
deeply malicious; malevolent.
poisonous efforts.
adjective
-
having the effects or qualities of a poison
-
capable of killing or inflicting injury; venomous
-
corruptive or malicious
Other Word Forms
- nonpoisonous adjective
- nonpoisonously adverb
- nonpoisonousness noun
- poisonously adverb
- poisonousness noun
- semipoisonous adjective
- semipoisonously adverb
- unpoisonous adjective
- unpoisonously adverb
Etymology
Origin of poisonous
Compare meaning
How does poisonous compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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 spiders were communicating once more, slowly rubbing their great ribbed back legs together like poisonous crickets.
From Literature
In the past three months, California has seen a sudden uptick in the number of people becoming sickened and dying after accidentally eating poisonous mushrooms found in the wild.
From Los Angeles Times
“They live among poisonous sea anemones. The poison doesn’t affect them. Isn’t that cool?”
From Literature
The snake was thicker than my thigh, but I knew from Togbe that these giants weren’t poisonous.
From Literature
But there are dozens of other poisonous snake species for which India does not have targeted antivenom.
From BBC
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.
