potion

American  

[poh-shuhn] / ˈpoʊ ʃən /

noun

1. a drink or draft, especially one having or reputed to have medicinal, poisonous, or magical powers.

   a love potion; a sleeping potion.

   Synonyms:

   philter, concoction, brew, elixir

---

potion British  

/ ˈpəʊʃən /

noun

1. a drink, esp of medicine, poison, or some supposedly magic beverage

2. a rare word for beverage

---

Etymology

Origin of potion

1300–50; Middle English pocion < Latin pōtiōn- (stem of pōtiō ) a drinking, equivalent to pōt ( us ), variant of pōtātus, past participle of pōtāre to drink + -iōn- -ion; replacing Middle English pocioun < Anglo-French < Latin, as above

Example Sentences

Always at the heart of these discontents was the battery—or batteries, because there has been a succession of them, an alchemist’s closet of energy-storing potions in weirdly shaped bottles.

From The Wall Street Journal

So spend a little time in the Witch’s Cottage, and maybe you’ll start to imagine that cocktail is a potion, and those deviled eggs did in fact hatch from a dragon.

From Los Angeles Times

There is no potion I know of for curing old age.

From Literature

The video for Opalite premiered on Friday, and stars Irish actor Domhnall Gleeson as a "lonely man" who summons Swift into his life by spraying a magic potion on his beloved cactus.

From BBC

They saw him take a cot out on the platform and some blankets and, by Jehoshaphat, he slept there all night, getting up to add his secret potion every few hours.

From Literature

Related Words

• draught
• elixir